Question on Modifiers

Question

Hi All,

I was reading the Manhattan GMAT guide on Sentence Correction and came across the below sentence.

Citizens of may countries are expressing concerns about the environmental damage caused by wide spread release of greenhouse gases,  DAMAGE THAT MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE TO REVERSE.

I understand that in the underlined section - "That may be impossible to reverse" modifies DAMAGE.
However, I am not clear on what portion of the sentence does the noun modifier - "damage that may .....reverse" modifies.

In the above sentence does "damage that may .....reverse" not modify greenhouse gases, while it is intended to refer to environmental damage?
Some how the "Damage that...reverse" seems to be a fragment in the sentence.

What am I overlooking here?
Can some one please help!

Thanks,
Chechaxo

neha24 · Answer

Citizens of may countries are expressing concerns about the environmental damage caused by wide spread release of greenhouse gases, DAMAGE THAT MAY BE IMPOSSIBLE TO REVERSE.

no !! . this is a classic case of  abstract noun + modifier  .where the abstract noun stands for something that has been described in the previous clause .we do find this kind of construction in very fine writings 
here "damage"  is an abstract noun that stands for environmental damage

jumsumtak · Answer

Absolute phrases. Here you go: Article

Solve some more questions to get clarity. You can find them in SC thread.

good luck

chechaxo · Answer

Thanks Neha24 and jumsumtak,

Indeed answers a lot of my questions...
The link jumsumtak has provided makes it crystal clear.

Cheers,
Chechaxo

KD1995 · Answer

Hi. I wanted to open the forum once again because I had a doubt in the question:
  citizens of many countries are expressing concern  about  the environment damage caused by the wide spread release of greenhouse gases may be impossible to reverse

It says to replace  about  with  that .

However, I wanted to know if we can substitute  about  with any other subordinate marker such as  because  or  since

But this would mean we are connecting two clauses with something other than FANBOYS conjunction without a comma. Is it correct, i.e.

citizens of many countries are expressing concern  since/because  the environment damage caused by the wide spread release of greenhouse gases may be impossible to reverse

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Question on Modifiers

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