With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, J

Hi mcepeci,

Considered in options D and E isn't a complete verb. Instead, it's a past participle (modifier). It is meant to be read as which has long been considered (present perfect tense, passive). Here's another example:

1. The player considered to be the best batsman ever... ← Considered isn't a complete verb here. It's a shorter way to say "the player who is considered to be the best batsman ever" (present tense, passive).

This can be a little strange, because in some cases (depending on the context) the same participle must be read as who/that/which was considered.

2. The player considered in the 1990s to be the best batsman... ← Again, considered isn't a complete verb here. It's a shorter way to say "the player who was considered in the 1990s to be the best batsman" (past tense, passive).

How can B be the answer? I recall both GMATNinja and egmat teaching comma + clause as 'Run on sentence'.
Anyone, Please Explain this in a layman's term.

GMATNinja Magoosh ron

This is what we call absolute modifiers. Their construct is Noun (abstract noun/ possessive pronoun - sometimes concrete noun as well .We call it resumtive modifiers then) + That clause / participal phrases.

Posted from my mobile device

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

I seriously doubt that bold faced part is an absolute phrase as mentioned in a couple of responses. An absolute phrase begins with an "abstract" noun that captures the act/outcome of the clause prior to "," and it modifies the entire preceding clause.

An example of absolute phrase :

He treats his patients with complete sincerity, a practice that endeared him.

In the above sentence, the noun "practice" is an abstract noun that captures the act or outcome of the preceding clause

But in the correct option B, its 60 square miles of water is not an abstract noun. Instead, it seems to be a noun modifier(appositive), modifying awkwardly the distant noun "Europa". Hence the phrase "its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom" should not be an absolute phrase.

Nested issue is that if it is not an absolute phrase, then as mentioned above , the appositive noun "its 60 square miles of water" is placed very far to the modified noun "Europa", making the sentence of a wrong construct.

Expert kindly help !! Thanks in advance

Hi abhishekmayank,

I'm not aware of any such restriction on the type of noun that we can use in an absolute, so I'd advise you to double-check that particular point. As for whether it modifies a clause, yes, an absolute phrase modifies some clause before it (usually after, as absolutes are normally used before their associated clauses), but again, I'm not aware of any restriction like the one you mentioned ("captures the act/outcome"), though I suppose this depends on how broad the phrase "captures the act" is. I'm not saying that your sources are definitely wrong, but I haven't come across any such restrictions. Feel free to link to any reliable grammar resource that you think I should take a look at.

Also, its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom {nominative noun + non-finite predicate} is an absolute phrase, so you may want to go over the information here once. This post may also be useful, as it details one way to create an absolute phrase.

It wouldn't make any sense to say, "Europa IS its 60 square miles of water..." As a result, it actually doesn't make any sense for the part after the comma to modify "Europa" by itself (or any other noun in the sentence).

As you said, an absolute phrase modifies the entire main clause, and that's exactly what the modifier after the comma does here: it gives us more information about WHY people consider Europa far too cold to support life.

In other words, if we end the sentence after "life" in choice (B), we might be left wondering, "Well, WHY do those insanely low temperatures make people think Europa is too cold to support life?" The part after the comma essentially says, "Because it's that freakin' cold, people believe that all of the water on Europa is frozen solid." And that helps the reader understand WHY people believe Europa is too cold to support life (the implication is that it's tough to support life wihthout any liquid water).

In short, the part after the comma in (B) logically modifies the main clause. For a bit more on that, and why (B) is better than (C), check out this post.

I hope that helps!

Hi MartyTargetTestPrep - I see how you eliminated C

But technically - what you mention above also will apply to B.

B is saying -->

Given Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life
thus
Europa possessess LOTS of water?

Hi jabhatta2.

Notice that the absolute phrase in the (B) version is actually "its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen ...."

So, we have the following:

Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life
and an aspect of that situation is that
Europa's water is thought to be frozen

That meaning is logical.

Thanks so much MartyTargetTestPrep for responding - one point i just noticed + one follow up

I just noticed
- In C -- thought is past partticiple adjective
whereas
- in B - thought is a verb actually.

I am struggling to understand however how
Europa's water is thought to be frozen
is modifying
Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life
Exactly ?

Is it describing why Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life ?

But we already know why Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life --

The initial modifier [surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit] told us why already (Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life)

"Thought" in the (B) version is a past participle that modifies "water."

The absolute phrase in the (B) version simply adds descriptive information.

Thanks MartyTargetTestPrep -

So if i understand in B - Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life is being modified by 2 seperate independent modifiers

- modifier 1) surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit {initial modifier}
- modifier 2) it has a lot of frozen water {absolute modifier}

There are 2 independent reasons for why Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life as per B

The 2 reasons are independent of each other.

Hello jabhatta2,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, your understanding is broadly correct.

However, it would be more accurate to say that "With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit" just modifies "Jupiter's moon Europa"; this phrase is a simple modifying phrase, not an absolute phrase. "its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom" is the absolute phrase, modifying the entire clause "Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life".

We hope this helps.
All the best!
Experts' Global Team

Thank you Tommy. To me it was difficult to identify that we were facing a modifier problem. the ", its 60 square..." looked like a run on sentence and I thought this choice was a wrong option. As a take away I need to invest some time whenever I see an "and" in a sentence and try to ID what parallel structure the answer is suggesting. If I did not find a clear parallelism maybe I am facing a modifier problem.

The tricky choice is between A and B. Answer choice A has two errors -

1. The phrase after ‘and’ (“with 60 square..”) is trying to be parallel to the entire first clause "With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life". But it is missing the subject 'it' and the verb ‘is’, and is therefore not a clause at all. So the phrase can only be parallel to "considered far too cold to support life". But that violates the rules of parallelism since the first element is a participle phrase ("considered far too..") whereas the second element is a prepositional phrase ("with 60 miles..")

2. The meaning of this phrase “with 60 square..” doesn’t make sense. Unlike the beginning clause (”With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life”) which does establish a clear cause and effect relationship, the second part of the sentence after the ‘and’ (“with 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom”) does not establish such a cause and effect relationship. How does 60 miles of water result in it being frozen from top to bottom.

On the other hand, Answer choice B sounds ‘weird’ and seems as if it is a run-on sentence. But it is not. The second part of the sentence (“its 60 miles of water thought to be frozen solid from top to bottom”) is not a clause at all because it does not have a working verb. Instead it’s a sophisticated form of an adverbial modifier modifying the entire preceding clause (known as an ‘absolute phrase’).

Posted from my mobile device

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.

Option Elimination -

(A) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, and with - on one side of "and," we have a clause, and on the other side, we have a phrase. Not parallel.

(B) Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life, its - ok. The phrase "its 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom" is an adjectival modifier modifying "Europa." While it's always advisable to use the adjectival modifier to place it as close as possible to the noun, it's acceptable to keep it a little far away, as in this case, for stylistic or rhetorical purposes.

(C) Europa has long been considered as far too cold to support life and has - let's expand this. "With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit" is a prepositional phrase that is adverbial and will modify both the constructions around "and."

With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Europa has long been considered far too cold to support life. ok.
With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Europa has 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom. So, it's saying that "because surface temperature estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Europa has 60 square miles of water? What does the negative temperature have to do with the presence of water? It doesn't make sense.

There is no causal connection between "surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit" and "Europa has 60 square miles of water thought to be frozen from top to bottom." These are two separate facts, and this option tries to connect two separate facts causally when they are not.

Moreover, "considered as" is not preferred.

(D) Europa, long considered as far too cold to support life, and its - No verb in the sentence. Europa (no verb) .....and Europa's (no verb)....."thought" is an "ed" verbal modifying the noun phrase before it, which is "60 square miles of water." Fragment.

(E) Europa, long considered to be far too cold to support life, and to have - Let me also talk about the big elephant in the room here. Both "consider" and "considered to be" can convey meaning effectively in English. The choice depends on the structure and the emphasis the writer wishes to give.

E.g., "Consider" often emphasizes the action of evaluating something. They consider him a leader. This emphasizes the ongoing perception of others regarding his leadership qualities.

Or let's talk about another perspective. "Consider" implies an ongoing or subjective assessment. The company considers her a valuable asset. This suggests the company's current opinion or ongoing evaluation of her value to the organization.

"Considered to be" places emphasis on the status or classification of the subject. She is considered to be an expert. This emphasizes her established standing in the field.

Or let's talk about another perspective. "considered to be" presents a more established or widely accepted viewpoint. She is considered to be a pioneer in the industry. It implies a consensus or reputation rather than an ongoing evaluation.

Ok, now back to our option E. The issue with option E is very fundamental. There is no verb. Europa (modifier) blah blah ....and (infinitive)....blah blah...Wrong.