Sentence Correction

With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, and with 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom

A. Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, and with
B. Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its
C. Europa has long been considered as far too cold to support life and has
D. Europa, long considered as far too cold to support life, and its
E. Europa, long considered to be far too cold to support life, and to have

Source: GMAT Prep

[spoiler]OA: B[/spoiler]

[spoiler]My problem with approaching this question is that I was trying to understand the structure of this sentence, and I couldn't really make sense of it. But turns out the reason why the sentence doesn't seem to make a lot of sense is because there's really only one clause and the rest are modifiers.

Does anyone have any tip to recognize such modifier structure, or should I just kind of take the approach that if the sentence structure doesn't make sense, analyze it as modifiers. [/spoiler]

Edited one of the typos.

Check for a working verb. If a clause does not have a working verb it is a modifier.

Modifier :
(i) no main verb
(ii) provide extra info.

In this question,

C , D , E clearly out : Idiom issue
between A and B : 'and' doesn't make sense. 'and' is used to give equal emphasis.

IMO B

I chose B by POE.
but unable to see why B is right.

With B, the sentence looks like:

With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its 60 square miles of water though to be frozen from top to bottom.

Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life
is the main part of the sentence

what is "its" referring to in the last modifier?? jupiter's moon or Jupiter??
IMO possessive refers to possessive. So its should refer to jupiter's moon.

Let me take another example.
John's dad is an extrovert. His absence in the party will be felt.

I think His refers to "john's dad" here.

What if I want to refer to John??

kvcpk,

Look up "Absolute Modifier", which is what is being used here. There are actually quite a few of these in the OG, and now it is finally on my radar for good.

John's dad is an extrovert. His absence in the party will be felt.

You're having the same issue I had when I first came across this question, and the issue is trying to make sense out of a sentence that sounds like it's missing a conjunction. Your example is little different because you actually do have two independent clauses, thus it does need a conjunction.

Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its 60 square miles of water though to be frozen from top to bottom.

Notice there isn't a verb, thus this cannot be a clause. You'll find more detail information when you research Absolute Modifier.

uwhusky wrote:kvcpk,

Look up "Absolute Modifier", which is what is being used here. There are actually quite a few of these in the OG, and now it is finally on my radar for good.

John's dad is an extrovert. His absence in the party will be felt.

You're having the same issue I had when I first came across this question, and the issue is trying to make sense out of a sentence that sounds like it's missing a conjunction. Your example is little different because you actually do have two independent clauses, thus it does need a conjunction.

Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its 60 square miles of water though to be frozen from top to bottom.

Notice there isn't a verb, thus this cannot be a clause. You'll find more detail information when you research Absolute Modifier.

Thanks Uwhusky. I will check on the absolute phrase modifier.

Can you help me with the example I stated above.
with two independent clauses.

John's dad is an extrovert. His absence in the party will be felt.

In the second IC, I want to get a meaning of John's absence in the party will be felt.
Not that of John's dad.

How can I restructure the sentence?

Any Ideas?

I would just avoid pronoun altogether and say John. MGMAT discussed briefly on this very subject.

Is there a typo in the second dependent clause?

and with 60 square miles of water though to be frozen from top to bottom

Did the author intend "thought"?

Must be, I copied and pasted someone who missed the t.

Paes, what's the idiom issue with C ?

paes wrote:Modifier :
(i) no main verb
(ii) provide extra info.

In this question,

C , D , E clearly out : Idiom issue
between A and B : 'and' doesn't make sense. 'and' is used to give equal emphasis.

IMO B

Consider "as" and consider "to be".

Great discussion!! This is something new!

@ Uwhusky - Can you please provide me the question numbers from OG 12 or 11 that have absolute modifiers? It will help me in understanding the application of this concept. Thanks

One more absolute modifier example:

https://www.beatthegmat.com/power-prep-2 ... 22896.html

beatthegmatinsept wrote:Great discussion!! This is something new!

@ Uwhusky - Can you please provide me the question numbers from OG 12 or 11 that have absolute modifiers? It will help me in understanding the application of this concept. Thanks