Question

Use a participial phrase to combine these two sentences into one sentence. The baby was cradled in her mother's arms. The baby was sleeping.

Answer 1

Cradled in her mother's arms, the baby slept.

Participle phrase: cradled in her mother's arms.

Participle: cradled.

Noun modified: baby.

Answer 2

Cradled in her mother's arms, the baby was sleeping.

A participial phrase is made up for a participle (a verb ending in–ing, ed or past participle form), and it fulfills the function of and adjective; that is to say, it modifies a noun. In the sentence, the noun that the participle phrase modifies is “baby”.