Which word in the sentence does the participial phrase modify? laughing at the question, he shook his head and said, "no." a. shook b. he c. head d. question

B. he 
The word 'he' is being modified by the participial phrase. 

The word 'laughing' is the participle. 

A PARTICIPLE is a verbal that is used as an adjective and most often ends in -ing or -ed. They express an action or a state of being. However, since they function as adjectives, participles modify nouns or pronouns. 

A PARTICIPIAL PHRASE  is a group of words consisting of a participle and the modifier(s) and/or (pro)noun(s) or noun phrase(s) that function as the direct object(s), indirect object(s), or complement(s) of the action or state expressed in the participle. 

The answer should be c. Hope it helps