Paige spread the icing equally over the cupcakes.
decide whether the underlined word is an adjective or adverb, and identify the word it is modifying.
a.
adjective modifying icing
b.
adverb modifying over
c.
adjective modifying cupcakes
d.
adverb modifying spread

The word equally is definitely an adverb, so we just need to find the word it modifies. Since adverbs modify either verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, we just need to look at the word's surroundings. We can see that the only word near the adverb is the verb spread.
The correct answer, therefore, is D. adverb modifying spread.