I am pretty sure the answer is D.
Answer: The answer is C - 'the heat of the Sun.'
Explanation: The traveler might also be thinking of what the effect of the Sun did to the wrecked ruins of the statue situated in a blazing desert. From the narrativeof the traveler, it was obvious that the frown and "sneer of cold command" on the statue's face indicate that the sculptor well understood the underlined emotions of the Statue's subject.
Well, let's see... I don't know what a coordinating conjunction is off the top of my head, but I know B isn't the answer, since 'independent' means 'highly capable of handling oneself'. C <em>certainly</em> isn't the answer, simply because you can see by this answer they obviously do combine with a dependent clause from time to time. That leaves us with D and A, which both leave the same term. However, I do believe I can use the word preceding <em>conjunction</em>, which is <em>coordinating</em>, to realize that 'and,' 'but,' and 'or' are coordinating conjunctions. Seriously, D cannot be the answer because not every sentence starts with any of those. So your answer is A.