Question: The presence of superionic ice likely explains the lopsided, off-center magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune; the solar system’s seventh and eighth planets that are known as ice giants and visited briefly by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft in the 1980s.

1. Neptune; the solar system’s seventh and eighth planets that are known as ice giants and
2. Neptune: the solar system’s seventh and eighth planets that are known as ice giants and
3. Neptune, the solar system’s seventh and eighth planets that are known as ice giants and
4. Neptune, which are the solar system’s seventh and eighth planets, known as ice giants, and
5. Neptune, the solar system’s seventh and eighth planets that are known as ice giants and were

“The presence of superionic ice likely explains the lopsided, off-center” - is a GMAT sentence correction question. These GMAT sentence correction questions include grammatical errors in the underlined sentence. The candidates must select the correct answer from the options by specifying the grammatical reasons to verify the options. The GMAT sentence correction section tests the grammatical aptitudes of the candidates. The readers must read the sentence properly to determine the correct answer. GMAT sentence correction is a part of GMAT verbal.

Answer: E
Explanation: It is crucial to illustrate an accurate explanation. The sentence structure follows:

The existence of superionic ice defines the lopsided, off-center magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune as ice giants. They are the solar system’s seventh and eighth planets and were visited briefly by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft in the 1980s.

The concepts that are required to be tested here to justify the given phrase of the sentence are stated below:

• Punctuation
• Modifiers
• Clause
• Parallelism
• Verb

Option A: Incorrect
The option states “Neptune; the solar system’s ….that are known as ice giants and visited…”. The semicolon is employed in this sentence incorrectly since it does not follow an independent clause. The phrase “that are known as ice giants and visited” is not structurally parallel. Therefore, the option is incorrect and thereby gets eliminated.

Option B: Incorrect
The statement in this option states “Neptune: the solar system’s …that are known as ice giants and visited…”. The colon used in this option is being misused. The modifier phrase that is followed by the colon is offering more thorough information about what precedes it. It is just an additional, superfluous fact. Moreover, the statement is not structurally parallel. Therefore, the option is incorrect and hence gets eliminated.

Option C: Incorrect
The statement in this option implies that “Neptune, the solar system’s… that are known as ice giants and visited…”. There exists a parallelism error in this statement. The phrase “that are known as ice giants and visited” is not structurally parallel. Moreover, a verb in the past tense is needed after ‘and’ in the sentence. Therefore, the option is incorrect and hence gets out of scope.

Option D: Incorrect
The statement suggests “Uranus and Neptune, which are the solar system’s…, known as ice giants, and visited…”. The clause “which” is used incorrectly to refer to ‘Uranus and Neptune’. Moreover, there is a modifier error between “which are the...” and “known as…”. The phrase is not structurally parallel to each other. Therefore, the option is incorrect and hence gets eliminated.

Option E: Correct
The statement states “ Neptune, the solar system’s …that are known as ice giants and were visited….” The verb in the past form “were” is correctly used after “and” to identify the past activity by NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft. The statement correctly recognises “Uranus and Neptune as the solar system’s…” Therefore, the option is correct as it satisfies the rules of grammar.

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