[SC悬赏令] 通过一道题求问独立结构

With surfacetemperatures estimated at minus 230 degrees Fahrenheit, Jupiter's moon Europahas long been considered far too cold to support life, and with 60 squaremiles 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 consideredas far too cold to support life, and its   

(B)

E.    Europa, long considered to be far too cold to support life, and to have

Usually(but not always, as we shall see), an absolute phrase (also called a nominativeabsolute) is a group of words consisting of a noun or pronoun and a participleas well as any related modifiers. Absolute phrases do not directly connectto or modify any specific word in the rest of the sentence; instead, they modifythe entire sentence, adding information. They are always treated asparenthetical elements and are set off from the rest of the sentence with acomma or a pair of commas (sometimes by a dash or pair of dashes). Notice thatabsolute phrases contain a subject (which is often modified by a participle),but not a true finite verb.

·        Theirreputation as winners secured by victory, the New York Liberty charged into thesemifinals. (charge into 猛攻入)

·        Theseason nearly finished,Rebecca Lobo and Sophie Witherspoon emerged as true leaders.

·        Thetwo superstars signed autographs into the night, their faces beaminghappily.

When theparticiple of an absolute phrase is a form of to be, such as beingor having been, the participle is often left out but understood.

·        The season[being] over,they were mobbed by fans in Times Square.

·        [Havingbeen] Stars all their adult lives, they seemed used to the attention.

Anotherkind of absolute phrase is found after a modified noun; it adds a focusingdetail or point of focus to the idea of the main clause. This kind of absolute phrase can take the form of a prepositionalphrase, an adjective phrase, or a noun phrase.

·        Theold firefighter stood over the smoking ruins, his senses alert to any signof another flare-up.

·        Hissubordinates, their faces sweat-streaked and smudged with ash, leanedheavily against the firetruck.

·        Theyknew all too well how all their hard work could be undone — in an instant.

It is notunusual for the information supplied in the absolute phrase to be the most importantelement in the sentence. In fact, in descriptive prose, the telling detailswill often be wrapped into a sentence in the form of an absolute phrase:

·        CoachNykesha strolled onto the court, her arms akimbo and a large silver whistleclenched between her teeth.

·        Thenew recruits stood in one corner of the gym, their uniforms stiff and illfitting, their faces betraying their anxiety.

A nounphrase can also exist as an absolute phrase: (GMAT中暂未出现此现象)

·        Yourbest friends,where are they now, when you need them?

·        Andthen there was my best friend Sally — the dear girl — who has certainlyfallen on hard times.

Itmight be useful to review the material on Misplaced Modifiers because it isimportant not to confuse an absolute phrase with a misplaced modifier.