HEIP!!! What does it modify?
I'm preparing my GMAT and I am really not good at the sentence correction.

......A of B, noun..... (the noun modifies A or B?)
......A of B, verb...... (Which is the subject? A or B?)

Here is a correct sentence .

The exploits of Nellie Bly, a pioneer journalist, included circling the globe faster than Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg. (I see a pioneer journalist modifies Nellie Bly)

I made another sample (I don't know if it is correct)
The book on the table, describes the lifestyle in 1970s.....Is it correct???

I understand I can judge a sentence primarily by its original meaning, but sometimes I get a wrong answer when the sentence becomes more complicated, and the explanation is usually too short!

The questions puzzled me for a long long long time!
Thank you so much for you answers!!!Actually, I'm confused about which(A or B) the n. or v. corresponds to in a sentence.

I treated the noun before "of" as "A", after "of" as "B".

So in the first sentence, a pioneer journalist→Nellie Bly , that is,a pioneer journalist corresponds to B;
in the second sentence(I mean It is not a complete sentence, "describes the lifestyle in the 1970s" is parenthesis) "describes"→"the book "(not "table"), so it's an "A"

when there are two nouns—— one is before and the other is after the preposition and we can't judge the sentence by its meaning, the modification can be ambiguous.

So what can I do in this situation? Are there any grammatical rules?

Question

HEIP!!! What does it modify?
I'm preparing my GMAT and I am really not good at the sentence correction.

......A of B, noun.....      (the noun modifies A or B?)
......A of B, verb......      (Which is the subject? A or B?)

Here is a  correct sentence .

The exploits of Nellie Bly,  a pioneer journalist, included circling the globe faster than Jules Verne's fictional Phileas Fogg. (I see a pioneer journalist modifies Nellie Bly)

I made another sample (I don't know if it is correct)
The book on the table, describes the lifestyle in 1970s.....Is it correct???

I understand I can judge a sentence primarily by its original meaning, but sometimes I get a wrong answer when the sentence becomes  more complicated, and the explanation is usually too short!

The questions puzzled me for a long long long time!
Thank you so much for you answers!!!Actually, I'm confused about which(A or B) the n. or v. corresponds to in a sentence.

I treated the noun before "of" as "A", after "of" as "B".

So in the first sentence,  a pioneer journalist→Nellie Bly , that is,a pioneer journalist corresponds to B; 
in the second sentence(I mean It is not a complete sentence, "describes the lifestyle in the 1970s" is parenthesis)  "describes"→"the book "(not "table"), so it's an "A"

when there are two nouns—— one is before and the other is after the preposition and we can't judge the sentence by its meaning,  the modification can be ambiguous.

So what can I do in this situation? Are there any grammatical rules?

Answer

Most books say that "a pioneer journalist" is an appositive. That is, it renames Nellie Bly.

The sentence that you made up is correct, except for the unnecessary comma and the lack of "the":

"The book on the table describes the lifestyle in the 1970s." But I do not know what you wish to know about. We would say that "on the table" modifies "the book" and that "in the 1970s" modifies "lifestyle."

Answer

Modify= to describe the meaning of a word. Adjectives usually modify nouns, and adverbs usually modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
 Example: In the phrase “a red hat,” the adjective “red” modifies the noun “hat.”

Answers · 2

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