SC: With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees

[RonPurewal]

I notice that Ron mentioned "it" in B refers to Europa, but should it usually refer to the closest non-human singler noun? Here should be "life". I like to check the antecedent when I see a pronoun to see whether it's clear. But I find this method sometimes makes me confused because pronouns sometimes don't strictly follow the rule.

Thanks a lot!

The distance between a pronoun and a noun is immaterial, as long as the context is clear.

In fact, pronouns are less likely to refer to immediately neighboring nouns.
That job is more often performed by modifiers, for which distance actually is a concern.

[RonPurewal]

Hi instructors,

Thank you for explaining the parallel structure here. I learn new things here. But I just want to double check that the parallel in C, "has long been ..." and "has..." correct if we don't consider whether the two parts are separate and independent.

There is no such thing as "If we don't consider the meaning..."

Mechanics and intended meaning work together as a team; mechanical structure is determined by intended meaning. (Grammar is just a vehicle for delivering an intended meaning!)

Without considering sense vs. nonsense, it's impossible to judge"”"”or even to define"”"”whether a construction is "correct".

(Some constructions are incorrect regardless of their meaning, because they just aren't valid English sentence constructions"”"”in the same way that some computer code doesn't actually run.
For a sentence to be correct, though, it has to express an intended meaning correctly. In the same way, it's impossible to say whether software "works correctly" unless you actually know what it's supposed to do!)

[lindaliu9273]

Thank you so much, Ron!

[ShobhitK282]

Hi Ron,

I understand your reasoning for C. But I'm facing a lot of trouble in answering such questions where modifiers are not the frequently used ones. I got stuck between B and C because C seemed parallel to me.

Can you help me structure my way while solving such questions or for that matter any SC question?

[RonPurewal]

Can you help me structure my way while solving such questions or for that matter any SC question?

Perhaps I'm misreading something, but it seems you're asking for a step-by-step, methodical "formula" that will work on all SC questions.

If such a thing exists, it exists only in the most general sense (first read the prompt to gather the intended meaning, then look for differences in the choices, then examine one difference at a time).

The stuff with specific formulas is in the quant section, not in the verbal section.

[liu1993918]

I want to ask the part which is not underlined：With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit.
As far as I know, the correct idiom is "estimated to be", right?
But, how come this correct sentence uses " estimated at" ?

Thanks in advance!

[JupiterE978]

I want to ask the part which is not underlined：With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit.
As far as I know, the correct idiom is "estimated to be", right?
But, how come this correct sentence uses " estimated at" ?

Thanks in advance!

hi liu,
here is your answer from Ron,
'i retract my advice above about non-underlined parts -- they should in general be reliable.

re: the problem i cited in that post, there is actually no contradiction; this is just a simple matter of grammar -- namely, prepositions need to be followed by NOUNS.
so, in the OG problems cited above, "estimated at 40 to 44 million years old" is incorrect not because of idiomatic rules, but, rather, simply because "40 to 44 million years old" is not a NOUN.

by contrast, "minus 230 degrees Farenheit" is a NOUN, so that construction is acceptable.

in general, you should be able to trust what is in the non-underlined parts.

if there is a contrast between one of the non-underlined parts and one of the OG answer explanations, you should DEFINITELY trust the non-underlined part.
many of the answer explanations in the OG are completely worthless; a few are even outright incorrect.'
i've had the same problem, hope that help

[liu1993918]

I want to ask the part which is not underlined：With surface temperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit.
As far as I know, the correct idiom is "estimated to be", right?
But, how come this correct sentence uses " estimated at" ?

Thanks in advance!

hi liu,
here is your answer from Ron,
'i retract my advice above about non-underlined parts -- they should in general be reliable.

re: the problem i cited in that post, there is actually no contradiction; this is just a simple matter of grammar -- namely, prepositions need to be followed by NOUNS.
so, in the OG problems cited above, "estimated at 40 to 44 million years old" is incorrect not because of idiomatic rules, but, rather, simply because "40 to 44 million years old" is not a NOUN.

by contrast, "minus 230 degrees Farenheit" is a NOUN, so that construction is acceptable.

in general, you should be able to trust what is in the non-underlined parts.

if there is a contrast between one of the non-underlined parts and one of the OG answer explanations, you should DEFINITELY trust the non-underlined part.
many of the answer explanations in the OG are completely worthless; a few are even outright incorrect.'
i've had the same problem, hope that help

thanks so much!!
However, I still have some trouble here.
In the GMAT SC GUIDE, an example of wrong sentence about "estimate" is " She estimates the cost AT ten dollers".
"10 dollers" is a noun, right?
Is that mean the SC GUIDE is wrong?

[RonPurewal]

I don't see anything wrong with "estimated at $10" in the first place—and that's before even taking into account the fact that it's constructed almost exactly like the –230ºF sentence.

[RichaChampion]

OA is B.
What is wrong with the other answer choices?

brief explanations:

(a)
"and with ..." isn't parallel to anything.
AND sets up parallelism, so there must be something to which "with..." can be parallel (other prepositional phrase, or other adverbial modifier). there is no such thing.

(b)
correct.
this is a type of modifier with which you should be familiar. (i have no idea what it's called - sorry)
here's another example:
john, his arms flailing in the wind, called out desperately for help.

note that the presence of frozen water SUPPORTS the claim that europa is "far too cold to support life", so it should be a MODIFIER.
this is done here.
it's inappropriate to place these two things in parallel with AND.

(c)
AND is rhetorically inappropriate (see above).
"considered as" is unidiomatic here.

(d)
this is not a sentence. (the clause before "and" doesn't have a verb; "considered" is a participle, not a verb, here)
"considered as" is unidiomatic here.

(e)
i don't think "considered to be" is wrong, although it's wordier than just "considered..."
this sentence has no verb at all! the only verb forms present are participles and infinitives, none of which is eligible to be the main verb of the sentence.

Ron,

I have one doubt/question in Option C-

Europa has long been considered as far too cold to support life and has

has long been a continuous tense, but after and the tense just has(This is not a continuous tense)-
If we ignore for some time that there are other errors like idiomatic and rhetoric etc.

It is a mandate that and should connect two equal tenses in parallel, or sequence of tenses should work!!

[MohitS94]

Richa,

Has been considered is present perfect tense. It works fine with has in the other parallel structure. The sequence of tenses should be logical, and in this case it is. Option (C) has to be eliminated for other reasons. I had a bit of a problem with tenses too when I first started with SC, but I found that a sentence works as long as the tenses make sense chronologically (for want of a better word).

Oh, and has been considered is passive, so the other structure should be passive as well. Usually changing the voice mid-sentence always produces a weird sounding sentence and I have generally been able to eliminate that choice on the basis of "awkwardness". But the voice of different parallel structures is definitely something to keep in mind.

Ron would definitely do a better job of explaining all this. But for some reason I haven't seen a lot of activity on the forum recently. Guess we just need to help each other out. :)

[RichaChampion]

Has Ron left the Forum or Manhattan?

[thanghnvn]

I think the ONLY problem with C is "as far" . " as far" is meaningless in the meaning of the sentence.

[MohitS94]

Don't think so. The staff is just busy I guess.

[RichaChampion]

Ron don't you think an "And" is missing in B ?
life, AND its

no.

this is a type of modifier with which you should be familiar. (if you're the type who likes to name things, this is called an "absolute phrase".)
here's another example:
john, his arms flailing in the wind, called out desperately for help.

--

far more importantly, remember that this is an OFFICIAL problem.
DO NOT QUESTION THE CORRECT ANSWERS TO OFFICIAL PROBLEMS.
it will always be a waste of your time to do this -- the official answers are never incorrect.

in summary:
* the WRONG question to ask is, "isn't that wrong?"
(the answer to this question will, 100% of the time, be "no, it's not wrong.")
* the RIGHT question to ask is, "what sort of construction is this, how is it used, and what can i do to recognize it in the future?"

Absolute phrases have this construction-
[Noun] [Participial Phrase] [Main Clause]

I am unable to Identify the absolute phrase in Option B. Ron can you please help me.