Grammar and Language Workbook

Write in the blank the correct form of the modifier in parentheses.
Pesticides are much 
[
costlier
]
, in environmental terms, than people once
realized. (costly)
1. Biologist Rachel Carson was one of the first people to realize that pesticides were altering the
environment 
[
]
than living things could adapt. (fast)
2. Carson’s book Silent Spring is widely regarded as one of the 
[
]
books of
the past half-century. (influential)
3. Her 
[
]
book, The Sea Around Us, had already established Carson as an
important writer. (early)
4. Silent Spring took four and a half years to write, much 
[
]
than Carson had
anticipated. (long)
Unit 9, Using Modifiers Correctly
195
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Name ___________________________________________________ Class _________ Date ____________________
Grammar

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5. In the 1960s, when Silent Spring was published, many people believed that pesticides were
[
]
than the insects they were meant to kill. (safe)
6. After all, insects carried some of the world’s 
[
]
diseases. (deadly)
7. Silent Spring climbed the best-seller lists even 
[
]
than The Sea
Around Us had. (quickly)
8. The chemicals Carson wrote about in Silent Spring were some of the 
[
]
the planet had ever seen. (toxic)
9. Birds appeared to be 
[