Complex sentences contain an independent clause and at least one dependent clause. An independent clause has the ability to stand alone as a sentence. It always makes a complete thought. A dependent clause cannot stand alone, even though it has a subject and a verb.
Example sentence: "I burned dinner, but not the cake."
We see how the first part of this sentence, "I burned dinner", can stand as an independent clause. It can stand as a complete sentence. Whereas the fragment, " but not the cake", is a dependent clause. It needs at least one other independent clause to make it a complete sentence.
The Apollo 13 was the 3rd mission to land the moon. The explosion of the oxygen tank effected this because the crew was forced to orbit the moon and land safely back to Earth without landing on the moon
