With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, J

\(NAIL\) \(THE\) \(ABSOLUTE\) \(PHRASES\)

#
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

This is many of those questions, which urge us to say "what does the author wants to convey?".
GMATTERS this is an example of the Absolute Phrase question. The sentences involving this concept generally introduce two clauses of which one modifies the entire idea of the preceding clause.

Most of the GMATTERS may be able to nail the question, under 2 mins, just posted above. But I am pretty sure that they must have neglected the concept of Absolute Phrases. There are/can be several mistakes in such questions which can easily help us to find the correct answer.

Anyways the answer to the question just posted above is .
In order to tackle such questions, I developed a technique and found it pretty useful.

Whenever you see such question, break the sentence into clauses, the basic step in SC questions. This blue portion is itself the Absolute Phrase which modifies the entire idea of the preceding clause.
Anyways, break the entire sentence into clauses.
i)With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit.
ii)Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life.
iii)and with 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom.

Notice that the third clause is NOT the independent clause.

The method is Stop youself at the end of the clause after which the following clause is not independent and RAISE THE QUESTION \(HOW?\). If the forecoming clauses answers your question in exactly in its own words, then that clause is the Absolute Phrase and is the correct choice.

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
With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, \(HOW?\)and with 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom. Does it answers HOW in its own words? NO! Eliminate it.

(B) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its
With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life,\(HOW?\) its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom. Does it answers HOW in its own words? YES!

(C) Europa has long been considered as far too cold to support life and has
With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life and has 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom. All clauses are independent. No Absolute Phrase.

(D) Europa, long considered as far too cold to support life, and its
With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life,\(HOW?\) and its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom. Does it answers HOW in its own words? NO!


(E) Europa, long considered to be far too cold to support life, and to have
Disaster. eliminate it at once.

Other examples are:

#Sound can travel through water for enormous distances, prevented from dissipating its acoustic energy as a result of boundaries in the ocean created by water layers of different temperatures and densities.
1)same as underlined
2)prevented from having its acoustic energy dissipated by
3) its acoustic energy prevented from dissipating by
4) its acoustic energy prevented from being dissipated as a result of
5) preventing its acoustic energy from dissipating by

#Margaret Courtney-Clarke has traveled to remote dwellings in the Transvaal to photograph the art of Ndebele women, whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house.
(A) whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house
(B) whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries are embellished with old and new iconography, and their style is varying among women and houses
(C) whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries are embellished with old and new iconography, and they are in styles that vary from woman to woman and house to house
(D) with murals brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography, and their style varies among women and houses
(E) with murals that are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries.

Hope all the above stuff helps to beat the Absolute Phrase.

Hey All,

I was asked by PM to weigh in on this one, though sid has already hit some important points. Here we go.

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.

I'd start by saying that generally GMAT prefers the idiom "estimate to be", rather than "estimate at", even though it's not underlined.


Sid hit this just right. If we use "and", we're setting up parallel clauses, so we'd need some new verb to make it work.


The term Sid was looking for is "participial phrase". "thought" is a past participle, meaning it opens up a modifying clauses, in this case modifying "its 60 square miles of water".


"Considered as" is wrong, and even though this creates a parallel AND adds a verb, it's still clunky. We want a modifier because we're creating an example of how it's too cold to support life (it's water is frozen all the way through), not making a new point.


'Considered as' is wrong. This also makes the same mistake as answer choice A. In addition, as Sid said, it has no main verb after "Europa", because considered here is a participle (like "thought" later on), which is not a full verb.


Sid nailed it. We have the participle "considered" again, and "to have" is just an infinitive riffing off of "considered", like "to be" in the middle portion. With no main verb in the whole sentence, it can't work.

Well done, Sid, and I hope I cleared up any lingering questions.

This is what I think:

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
And is not required here. If we use AND then there should be a verb to support parallelism as in - Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, AND, with 60 square miles of water IS thought to be frozen from top to bottom

B) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its
Correct answer.
Think of it like this: Europa, its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom, has long been considered far too cold to support life.
This is a type of modifier I think although I'm not sure what the construction is called.

C) Europa has long been considered as far too cold to support life and has
'Considered as' is wrong.

D) Europa, long considered as far too cold to support life, and its
'Considered as' is wrong.
This sentence is a fragment, it does not have a verb - considered is not a proper verb, its a participle.

E) Europa, long considered to be far too cold to support life, and to have
This sentence is a fragment, it does not have a verb - considered is not a proper verb, its a participle.

First look - misplaced modifier, grammatical construction

(A) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, and with Wrong - "and with" must combine two like prepositional phrases, or "and" must precede an independent clause.

(B) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its Best answer - I dislike how the predicate splits the subject and its modifying phrase (appositive), though it seems that the GMAT employs it frequently to throw off test takers. This really was a last resort.

(C) Europa has long been considered as far too cold to support life and has Wrong - "with 60 square miles" should modify Europa, not be a predicate and demand equality to "too cold to support life." In a way, the last modifier should describe "too cold to support life" and not life.

(D) Europa, long considered as far too cold to support life, and its Wrong - "and its" must combine two like phrases, or "and" must precede an independent clause.

(E) Europa, long considered to be far too cold to support life, and to have Wrong - fragment.

IMO B

Answer must be B
First of all we do have to consider the correct usage of "With".
ex- "With 4 childrens at home, Rachel barely has any spare time for her hobbies".
Notice that the two clauses of the above sentence are reinforcing into each other.
So the sentence must complete after the second clause. If it does'nt, then the third clause must be a modifier, modifying the preceding clause.
B does it correctly.
", its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom" is an absolute phrase that is modifying " Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life".
Whats the OA and the source?
-s

Dear Friends,

Here is a detailed explanation to this question-

Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:
Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended core meaning of this sentence is that Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life since its 60 square miles of water are thought to be frozen from top to bottom.

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Verb Forms + Idioms

• The word "considered" does not require conjunction or a helping word/phrase; “consider/considered” is always followed directly by the noun, and the similar word "regarded" must be followed by the conjunction "as"; correct usages: Jack is “considered a math genius” or Jack is “regarded as a math genius”.

A: The sentence formed by this answer choice uses the phrase "and with 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom"; the construction of this phrase leads to an incoherent meaning; the intended meaning is that Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life since its 60 square miles of water are thought to be frozen from top to bottom.

B: Correct. This answer choice acts upon the subject noun "Jupiter's moon Europa" with the active verb "has long been considered" to form a complete thought, leading to a complete sentence. Further, Option B uses the phrase "its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom", conveying the intended meaning - that Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life since its 60 square miles of water are thought to be frozen from top to bottom. Additionally, Option B correctly and idiomatically uses the word "considered" without any helping words or phrases.

C: The sentence formed by this answer choice uses the phrase "and has 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom"; the construction of this phrase incorrectly implies that Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, and as a separate action, it has 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom; the intended meaning is that Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life since its 60 square miles of water are thought to be frozen from top to bottom. Further, Option C incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "considered as"; remember, the word "considered" does not require a conjunction or a helping word/phrase; “consider/considered” is always followed directly by the noun.

D: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; "considered" is a past participle acting as a modifier, and "thought" is a modifier that is part of a dependent clause, so there is no active verb to act upon the subject "Jupiter's moon Europa". Further, Option D incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "considered as"; remember, the word "considered" does not require a conjunction or a helping word/phrase; “consider/considered” is always followed directly by the noun.

E: This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; "considered" is a past participle acting as a modifier, and "to have" is an infinitive verb phrase, so there is no active verb to act upon the subject "Jupiter's moon Europa". Further, Option E incorrectly uses the unidiomatic construction "considered to" and "considered...to have"; remember, the word "considered" does not require conjunction or a helping word/phrase; “consider/considered” is always followed directly by the noun.

Hence, B is the best answer choice.

Additional Note: Please note that in Option B "its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom" serves as an absolute phrase, a phrase that modifies the entirety of the preceding clause.

All the best!
Experts' Global Team
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C, D, E OUT. consider as and consider to be are unidiomatic

Between A and B

A fails parallelism. I need another "has" to make it parallel.

B is left.

In option A the AND introduces a parallel structure - both left and right should be parallel.

left: Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life
right: Europa thought to be frozen from top to bottom (I've removed the with 60 miles of water that modifies Europa)

In the above, left and right are not parallel. To make them parallel:
Europa has long been considered || Europa is thought to be frozen

'thought' by itself is not a verb here. If a sentence is to be constructed with 'thought' alone as a verb then I think (notice I've used the present tense of 'thought' as a verb here) it should look like: Europa thought that she was frozen from top to bottom - this construction is silly as it gives life to Europa.
The author is trying to say 'Everyone thinks that Europa is frozen from top to bottom' which is why we have 'Europa is thought to be (by everyone) frozen..'.

So the answer is (B).

The important part is to understand the STRUCTURE of this sentence. It turns out this sentence uses BOTH sides of the main part of the sentence for DESCRIPTIVE PHRASES.

MAIN SENTENCE = "Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life"
DESCRIPTIVE PHRASE #1 = "With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit"
DESCRIPTIVE PHRASE #2 = "its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom."

The structure of:
[DESCRIPTIVE PHRASE], [MAIN SENTENCE] is OK.
"With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life."

The structure of: [MAIN SENTENCE], [DESCRIPTIVE PHRASE] is also OK.

"Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, with surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit"

And you can use any descriptive phrase including DESCRIPTIVE PHRASE #2 like so:
"Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom."

But what you can ALSO do - and what this question is testing - is combine these two structures like so:

[DESCRIPTIVE PHRASE #1], [MAIN SENTENCE], [DESCRIPTIVE PHRASE #2].

So combining them, you get what (B) says:

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 thought to be frozen from top to bottom.

So they basically put descriptive phrases on both sides of the main part of the sentence.

Hope that helps!

Yes; the answer must be B

We can ditch C, D and E since all these three choices are using gmatically wrong idiom considers as and consider to be
Between A and B, we can follow Marcab’s point.

But, I have different question to GMAT PILL? What exactly is the text trying to convey by saying that Europa has 60 square miles of frozen water from top tobottom. Is it referring to the depth of the ice from top to bottom? Then, does that mean 60 miles of depth frozen water all over its surface? . Or does it mean that Europa has only 60 square miles of ice, less than an eight miles square. Normally, I thought ice is measured in cubic volumes and not in square volumes. Just for my curiosity, please.
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With B, the sentence would be:

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 thought to be frozen from top to bottom.

The construct its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom is not a clause.

This construct is basically an absolute modifier: Noun (its 60 square miles of water) + Noun modifier (thought to be frozen from top to bottom, in this case, a past participial phrase).

p.s. Our book SC Nirvana discusses Absolute modifiers, their application and examples in significant detail. If you can PM you email, I can send you the corresponding section.
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Thanks EducationAsile.

I have got the point that the phrase can modify the noun. I have one more query. If we change "considered as" to "considered" in choice C then do we have any other errors in choice C?


-Anuj

With C, the sentence would be:

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

Even if it is just considered, C has a meaning issue. The intended meaning is that Europa is too cold to support life; a proof given to this effect is that its 60 square miles of water is thought to be frozen from top to bottom.

However, C uses and and hence seems to incorrectly suggest two independent things about Europa:
i) Europa is too cold to support life
ii) Europa has 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom
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With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, [Prep phrase]
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. [another prep phrase]

Both of the prep phrase as here to support the fact that Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life.
Its between A and B.
(A) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, and with
>>At first look and with seemed to be || with With surface temperatures. Also IMO, comma+And shall introduce another IC but here its an phrase.
Can someone please elucidate on this?
(B) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its
>>Correct. More crisp than A.
Phrase "its ..." is modifying Europa though its not touching or quite far from modified noun. Can be read as
Europa ,its ...., has long been considered far too cold to support life.
(C) Europa has long been considered as far too cold to support life and has
>> prep phrase is converted into another clause which is wrong.Reason, now both r acting at same level in sentence structure.Whereas, original intention is two use two phrases to conclude something.
Considered as not correct.
(D) Europa, long considered as far too cold to support life, and its
>> Missing main verb. Considered as is not correct here.Even second part ,post comma+and, is missing the verb.
(E) Europa, long considered to be far too cold to support life, and to have
>>Considered to be is not correct here;Missing main verb

If we read the original sentence as ,

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.

Does it make sense? My point is that both the the "with" phrases modify the same saem clause, "Jupiter's moon...." and are paralle as well, then why is the sentence as is wrong?

Check comma+end - it starts a new clause , which should contain a subject and a verb. In this new phrase subject is missing. \If we repeat subject in this clause then sentence would be correct.

I have few questions from you-
I normally put other rules to secondary position and judge with what Ron emphasizes so much:

and should complete the laundry list
and should connect two clauses
and can also connect two similar phrases
If we ignore idiomatic error for a while in C, can we discard C as and is unable to connect two part with exactly same tenses.
first part has continuous tense and in second part the tense is not continuous.

Actually this is not a requirement that parts connected by and should be in the same tense.
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Let me try to help on this one.

As far as the idiomatic usage, considered as is non idiomatic. But consider to be or consider without a preposition is an idiomatic usage.

I also want to highlight on the usage of [with]+[noun]+[participle] construction. The sentence begins with this construction and this construction is used correctly as a prepositional modifier modifying Jupiter's moon Europa in this sentence. Though its a part of the non-underlined portion but I wanted to highlight on that part.
For more details on the usage of [with]+[noun]+[participle] construction, please refer, https://magoosh.com/gmat/2015/with-noun-participle-on-gmat-sentence-correction/

Now coming to the answer choices, POE works the best,

(A) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, and with
Usage of ", and" is to connect two independent clauses. But we have only one independent clause - Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life. The second independent clause is missing. Also the other usage of ", and" is to connect more than 2 elements in a list, which is also not the case here. So usage of ", and" is wrong here. Therefore, incorrect.


(B) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its
Here, the part after the comma, its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom is a NOUN + NOUN Modifier modifying the preceding clause. Correct. The intended meaning is that Europa is too cold to support life; a proof given to this effect is that its 60 square miles of water is thought to be frozen from top to bottom. This is clearly justified through the usage of NOUN + NOUN Modifier.

(C) Europa has long been considered as far too cold to support life and has
Considered as is not idiomatic. ALso, in this sentence, the intended meaning is lost. We are not saying 2 things in the sentence. Instead we are saying only one thing which is supported by a modifier. Therefore, C has a meaning issue. The intended meaning is that Europa is too cold to support life; a proof given to this effect is that its 60 square miles of water is thought to be frozen from top to bottom.
However, C uses and hence seems to incorrectly suggest two independent things about Europa:
i) Europa is too cold to support life
ii) Europa has 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom. Therefore, incorrect.


(D) Europa, long considered as far too cold to support life, and its
There is no verb for the main subject Europa. Usage of Considered as is not idiomatic. Here also, the intended meaning is lost as in option C. Incorrect.

(E) Europa, long considered to be far too cold to support life, and to have
It also repeats the similar errors as option D.