HOT Competition 2 Sep/8PM: With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahre

Question

With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahrenheit in winter,  Siberia has always been considered cold, and with a  continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages.

A. Siberia has always been considered cold, and with a

B. Siberia has always been considered cold, and a

C. Siberia has always been considered cold, and has a

D. Siberia has always been considered cold, and its

E. Siberia has always been considered cold, and as having

Bunuel · Accepted Answer

GMATWhiz Explanation

Step 1: Understanding Intended Meaning

With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahrenheit in winter, Siberia has always been considered cold, 
 • The prepositional phrase “with……..in winter” is modifying the noun “Siberia” and also logically makes sense with the action – why Siberia is considered cold

and with a continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages.
 • The “and” indicates a list. Let’s separate the entities and check.
 o Siberia has always been considered cold
o Siberia has always been  considered with a continuous ……..Ages
   The list is not logically parallel 
 The words in bold convey no logical meaning 
o Correct version: the construction needs to be modified to reflect that Siberia is a continuous ice sheet stretched….Ages

Intended meaning: 
 • Siberia has temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahrenheit in winter.
• Hence, Siberia has always been considered cold.
• It is a continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages

Step 2: Eliminate choices with identified errors

Checking for five aspects 
 1. Golden rules
 a. No error 
2. Lists
  a. The list is not logically parallel  
3. Tenses
 a. No error 
4. Idioms
 a. No error

Eliminate  
No other choice has the errors present in Choice A.

Step 3: Evaluate meaning of remaining choices 
To be done for Option B, C, D and E . Detailed out below each choice.

Choice A Analysis 
Incorrect and Eliminated in Step 2

Choice B Analysis 
Fitting in the original sentence
With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahrenheit in winter, Siberia has always been considered cold, and a continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages
 • Let’s check for parallelism
 o Siberia has always been considered cold
o Siberia has always been considered a continuous……..Ages

 Logical
 Clear, 
 Same as the intended meaning 
Correct Choice.

Choice C Analysis 
Fitting in the original sentence:
With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahrenheit in winter,  Siberia has always been considered cold,  and has a   continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages
 • Let’s check for parallelism
 o Siberia has always been considered cold
o Siberia has always been considered has a continuous……..Ages
  The two entities are not logically parallel

Incorrect Choice.

Choice D Analysis 
Fitting in the original sentence:
With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahrenheit in winter,  Siberia has always been considered cold,  and its   continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages
 • Let’s check for parallelism
 o Siberia has always been considered cold
o Siberia has always been considered its continuous……..Ages
  The two entities are not logically parallel   
Incorrect Choice.

Choice E Analysis 
Fitting in the original sentence:
With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahrenheit in winter,  Siberia has always been considered cold,  and as having   continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages
 • Let’s check for parallelism
 o Siberia has always been considered cold
o Siberia has always been considered as having continuous……..Ages
  The two entities are not logically parallel
 “Considered as” is idiomatically incorrect.

Incorrect Choice.

mSKR · Answer

A. Siberia has always been considered cold, and with a
Not parallel

B. Siberia has always been considered cold, and a
siberia has always been considered a continuous ice sheet ?-wrong

C. Siberia has always been considered cold, and has a
why need a comma before and ; there is no independent clause after and- not agree with option

D. Siberia has always been considered cold, and its
new IC, starts after with comma and - keeps structure as expected-choose

E. Siberia has always been considered cold, and as having
Having : +ing not needed here

JonShukhrat · Answer

KOMP:
There are two grammatically viable choices; thus, much of the debate will be about which one makes more sense. Let’s first eliminate other choices though:

A.  Siberia has always been considered cold, and  with  a continuous ice sheet  stretched  as…

1. both “stretching” and “stretched” can be adjectives. 
The difference: “an ice sheet stretching from north of Spitsbergen to the Netherlands” means that ice sheet itself stretches from A to B.
However, “an ice sheet stretched from north of Spitsbergen to the Netherlands” means that someone by force stretches the ice sheet. The latter is nonsensical. We need the first.
2. we need the first because “with…” starts a modifier that cannot have a working verb. If we accept “stretched” as a verb, as in B and D, then it isn’t compatible with the modifier “with…”. On the other hand, if we accept “stretched” as an adjective, it will work with “with…” but results in nonsense. Therefore, we need “with a continuous ice sheet stretching”.
3. even if we had a correct modifier “with…” with a correct adjective “stretching” in it, this modifier isn’t parallel with the clause preceding a parallel marker “and”. After “and” we need either a verb or a clause.

C.  Siberia has always been considered cold, and has a continuous ice sheet  stretched  as…

1. “Siberia… has a continuous ice sheet stretched” – since “has” is already a verb here, “stretched” can only be an adjective. As I have abovementioned, “an ice sheet stretched from north of Spitsbergen to the Netherlands” means that someone by force stretches the ice sheet.
2. “Siberia… has a continuous ice sheet stretching” would work. 
3. “has a continuous ice sheet… during much of the Pleistocene Ages” – here “during” is an adverbial modifier that needs a verb to refer to. the closest verb is “has” that is in the Present tense. However, “has (present time) during the Pleistocene Ages (ice ages, many centuries ago)” doesn’t make sense. 
Of course, “during” may refer to “stretched”, but most probably a reader might relate it first to “has” and only after a couple of rereads to “stretched”.

E.  Siberia has always been considered cold, and  as having  continuous ice sheet  stretched  as

1. “as having” tries to incorrectly refer to “consider”. The correct version would be “considered to have”. 
2. “having” is already an action here, and thus “stretched” can only be an adjective. As I have abovementioned, “an ice sheet stretched from north of Spitsbergen to the Netherlands” means that someone by force stretches the ice sheet.
3. “ice sheet stretching” would work.

B.  Siberia has always been considered cold, and   a   continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages.

D.  Siberia has always been considered cold, and its continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages.

Let's juxtapose B and D:
Note that Pleistocene Ages is another name for Ice Age that took place million years ago. Back then, ice sheets covered huge parts of the world, and an ice sheet in Siberia stretched to Canada. Now, Siberia’s ice sheet stretching to Canada has already disappeared and no more exists. Its ice sheets exist only in Russia now. With this in mind, let’s take a look at B without its modifiers:

- Siberia has always been considered cold, and   a   continuous ice sheet stretched across the whole width of Canada.

Here, “and” seems to introduce two unrelated piece of information: first, the Siberia is cold, and second, an ice sheet existed in Canada during the Ice age. “a continuous ice sheet” talks about an ice sheet that existed in Canada back then; We cannot deduce that this was Siberia’s ice sheet, which stretched to Canada, because these days no such ice sheet exists. As written, the sentence makes no sense because why the heck to adjoin two unrelated piece of information with “and”?

I think the sentence intends to say that Siberia was cold and so cold that its ice sheet stretched to Canada. To make clear that it was Siberia’s ice sheet, not any other ice-sheet in Canada, we need to add “its”, as in D:

- Siberia has always been considered cold, and  its  continuous ice sheet stretched across the whole width of Canada

Hence   D

Posted from my mobile device

generis · Answer

EVERYONE, please. Slow down. There are hundreds of you. There are a few of us. According to GMAT Whiz, the OA is B. I disagree. The comma placement is unfortunate. The better answer is D. Answer C? Not a chance. 1) we do not put a comma between a subject and the second verb in a compound predicate (one subject that is followed by two verbs) 2) The sentence is nonsensical. The second has should say had —and even in that case, the sentence would be quite jarring. Siberia has always been considered cold ,

and HAS a continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier across the whole width of Canada during much of the Pleistocene Ages . Siberia HAS an ice sheet NOW that is stretched across the whole width of Canada DURING THE PLEISTOCENE AGES? NO!!!!! Take a look JonShukhrat 's answer, here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/hot-competit ... l#p2610240 Option B is the official answer. People who chose B and explained got kudos from me because gmatwhiz designated B. If you have a problem, send a message (a polite one, please), to gmatwhiz . Those of you who chose D also got kudos from me.

generis · Answer

Highlight: wow. Chutzpah. Or something.

Mizar18,  I may not understand your question.
If my answer does not help, please ask again but try to explain what you mean a little more.

Stretched  is a verb.

Verb tenses can shift in sentences, especially in those joined by a conjunction.

I   have been trying   to figure out how I can post my Butler questions on time, and   I am concerned   that I will be late in doing so.

ShankSouljaBoi · Answer

Why do we need to know the highlighted portion to understand and solve a sc question ?

MayankSingh · Answer

With auxiliary verb it make sense to say stretch is acting as a verb 
But as per the original -stretched seems to act as a verb-Ed modifier ...

Posted from my mobile device

generis · Answer

What you wrote is no clearer than before.

I don't know what "as per" means. 
As per the "original" WHAT? Prompt? 
No.

Let me try one more time.

This material is from the original prompt:
(1) Siberia has always been considered cold,
AND
(2) its ice sheet stretched . . .

No auxiliary verb exists in the second independent clause.
 Siberia  is the subject of the first clause.
Siberia's  ice sheet  is the subject of the second clause.  No auxiliary verb exists in the second clause.

generis · Answer

ShankSouljaBoi  ,

You don't. 
You need to know that a comma should not separate a subject from the second verb in a compound predicate except in extraordinary circumstances. This question does not fall in the latter category.

JonShukhrat · Answer

Hi friends ShankSouljaBoi , MayankSingh , and Anki2609 I can feel your resentment. These are not official problems, so… you know what I mean. Note that C is also flawed for the illogical modification of “ice sheet”. If I say “someone should already fix the blue chair broken during the fight between two colleagues”, then you understand that the chair did not break itself, but was broken by someone else. So, someone else broke it. If, instead, I said “…the blue chair broking during the fight…”, then that would be nonsense because the chair is not breaking itself. On the other hand, “he has an enormous yacht extending almost 150 meters” logically implies that the yacht itself extends so many meters. However, “…has an enormous yacht extended almost 150 meters” would be illogical because no one is extending his yacht. It itself extends. Similarly, as an adjective, “stretched” means that someone stretches, whereas “stretching” means that the thing itself stretches. Now let’s take C: C) Siberia… has a continuous ice sheet stretched as an impossible barrier… Since choice C already has a verb “has”, we cannot have another verb without any conjunction. Hence, as you said, “stretched” has to be a modifier / adjective describing “ice sheet”. As a modifier, though, “stretched” doesn’t make sense because “ice sheet stretched” means that someone else stretches the ice sheet. That’s nonsense. Ice sheet is not from a gum. Rather, ice sheet itself stretches to Canada, and hence we need to use “stretching”, not” stretched”. A similar construction: - Only a few feet wide but spanning a continent, the railroad changed the history. (“spanned” would be wrong) Here are official problems that test the conception: https://gmatclub.com/forum/advanced-sc- ... 97101.html https://gmatclub.com/forum/scientists-h ... -9394.html https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-growth-o ... 75679.html After completing all the links, I hope you will be able to discern why C is wrong. Edit: Here are some examples from science journals: - At such times, there was a contiguous ice sheet stretching from north of Spitsbergen to the Netherlands and from the Norwegian Sea to the Taimyr Peninsula - An ice sheet stretching into the distance. - ...ice sheet stretching as long as 20 kilometres. - …except for the presence of a large ice sheet stretching from Alaska across the Bering Strait to most of eastern Siberia.

Mizar18 · Answer

This example makes sense, but the one in this question focuses on the subject “Siberia” and then uses the conjunction “and” to connect an independent clause regarding a past action about its continuous sheet. That connection gives no sense to the first independent clause, so there’s no point to use “and”, logically speaking.

In addition, we can argue whether “stretched” is acting as a verb or as a modifier, and there is no point on arguing since this is not an official question.

Best

Posted from my mobile device

JonShukhrat · Answer

Hi  Mizar18

My friend, I think you cannot eliminate an answer choice for the reason you mentioned.
We cannot expect to see an absolute phrase and cross off the choice just because none shows up. 
As far as there is a viable construction that makes sense, we are fine.

D) Siberia has always been considered cold, and its continuous ice sheet stretched across the whole width of Canada…

There are two independent clauses:
- Siberia has always been considered cold
- Its continuous ice sheet stretched across the whole width of Canada…

Those two sentences are parallel and correctly connected by a comma + coordinate conjunction “and”. So, we have “independent clause, and independent clause” that is perfectly fine.

Note that “stretched” is a verb here. Similar sentences from Cambridge dictionary:

- A huge cloud of dense smoke stretched across the horizon.
- The Andes stretch for 7,250 km along the west coast of South America.
- Unsettled weather will stretch from the middle Mississippi Valley to the southern Middle Atlantic States.
- The refugee camps stretch as far as the eye can see.

The reason for which the OE eliminates C and D is just… you know what I mean friend. 
You are right that this one is designed after the official problem about Jupiter’s moon Europa. I think this was done deliberately in the hope that we will be expecting an absolute phrase and thus lose much time, looking around for one. A good trap.

JonShukhrat · Answer

That actually is the difference between B and D. Take a look at the sentence below:

- Samsung has always been one of the most innovative companies, and  a  “folding screen” patent brought all-time record 17 billion dollars in 2018.

How do we know that “folding screen” patent belongs to Samsung? As written this sentence talks about two unrelated events. First, Samsung is innovative. Second, someone’s patent brought him billions of dollars. B does exactly the same thing. If so, why the heck we need to connect two unrelated peice of information with “and”? This sentence doesn’t much differ from “Apple has unveiled iphone 12, and a Russian hen can give 2 eggs a day”.

Now:

- Samsung has always been one of the most innovative companies, and  its  “folding screen” patent brought all-time record 17 billion dollars in 2018.

Now we know for sure that two pieces of information don’t just appear side by side. They both talk about Samsung. So we are fine. That’s what D does.

That’s the reason why  generis  prefers D to B. I don’t doubt her genius.

suminha · Answer

Thank you so much for the great explanation  JonShukhrat  !

But I still have a question on B and D.

Did you consider “stretched” as a past simple verb?

Why I’m asking about this is; when we parallel two noun, normally we don’t put comma in front of ‘and’. Because putting comma in front of ‘and’ means that the author connected two sentences, since comma signifies indentation.

Therefore, B and D should be considered as two sentences are connected. So if “stretched” is just an adjective, “(B) a continuous ice sheet stretched ~” has sentence fragment issue because a verb is missing. So does (D).

So like I asked above, I’m curious that you considered “stretched” a verb.

Thank you in advance!

Mizar18 · Answer

Yes, you have to consider "stretched" as a simple past verb to make it work (D). Indeed in B) you also have two indepent clauses as in D), but the possesive determiner "its" relates the noun of the second indepent clause to "Siberia", that is why D) is better than B). However, starting with a preposition "With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahrenheit in winter", is totally nonsense to connect an independent clause talking about an action in the past regarding "its ice sheet" to the fact that Siberia "has always been considered cold" . Do not lose time on this one and try the official one and you will see how "clean" the connection is made between an independent clause and an absolute phrase .: https://gmatclub.com/forum/with-surface ... 96119.html

VerbalBot · Answer

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.

HOT Competition 2 Sep/8PM: With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahre

Prep Toolkit

Top 5 GMAT Debrief Videos

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards

GMAT Sentence Correction (SC - EA only) Questions

HOT Competition 2 Sep/8PM: With temperatures at minus 88 degrees Fahre

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

More than Quant/Verbal Abilities: Speed vs. Accuracy

745 with Only Self-Prep and GMAT Club

From 555 to 765: 210-point Improvement

Perfect 805 Score Debrief by Julia

My Rewards