lunarpower wrote: also, remember the following principle:
it's much, much more important to RECOGNIZE EXAMPLES of grammatical constructions than to explain the actual rules behind those examples.
really.
think about the way you evaluate your own native language. if you come across an example of sloppy writing in your native language, HOW do you recognize it as sloppy? do you actually apply a bunch of formal rules to it?
no, you don't - you just realize, "hey, that doesn't look like what i've seen before." it's pure recognition.
you should try to get to this point with sentence correction.
when you get to this sort of obscure construction, just remember what it looks like and in what context it's found, so you can recognize similar examples in the future.

lunarpower wrote:

dentobizz wrote:Hi Ron,
Thanks for the explanation.

Will this construction(below)be valid on the Gmat?

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

[prepositional phrase +and+ prepositional phrase, Main clause]

Thanks

yep, that's a perfectly well-constructed sentence.

lunarpower wrote: this sort of modifier (COMMA + ABSTRACT NOUN) can be used to refer back to the WHOLE IDEA of the preceding clause.

recent studies have shown that X is 60 percent of Y, a finding that has shocked many in the scientific community.
or
recent studies have shown that X is 60 percent of Y, a statistic that has shocked many in the scientific community.
these are correct.
the abstract noun "finding" or "statistic" may refer to the whole idea of the preceding clause.

in fact, that's the whole point of these modifiers. they are fatally awkward in spoken language (i.e., you can NEVER EVER say them out loud), but they do things that more "normal-sounding" modifiers (such as "which") aren't allowed to do.

for 2 problems that use this sort of modifier, see:

* #59 in the purple OG verbal supplement (in which this sort of modifier is present in the NON underlined section)

* #79 in the same source (in which it's present in the correct answer choice)

netcaesar wrote:I do not know how to solve this SC. Please, help!!!

With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Farenheit, 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