they were an elderly couple who lived in an old house on what was left of the family farm.帮我分析一下句子结构,我很不明白后面on what was left of the family farm.是怎么回事,

问题描述:

they were an elderly couple who lived in an old house on what was left of the family farm.
帮我分析一下句子结构,我很不明白后面on what was left of the family farm.是怎么回事,

what=the thing that
在句中作定语引导词修饰house, 可以改写为
in an old house on the thing that was left of the family farm.
(在农户留下的地方建造的老屋中)

如果将这句句子稍稍调整一下,你可能就明白了:
They were an elderly couple who lived on what was left of the family.(他们是一对老夫妇,住在一套破旧的房子里,靠着家属农场仅存的家产生存)
这里,on应该是live on,靠什么生存,只是中间插入了in an old house.
这样是不是好理解了一点.