The List:

A eukaryotic cell has a nucleus, Explanation 1, Golgi apparatus, Explanation 2, and plasma membrane, Explanation 4.

The reason to do this just to focus on the list and there is no real reason to focus on the explanation of each term.

A quick scan through options will reveal that we have semi colon introduced in some of them.

A. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription, Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids, - Creates False Parallelism.

B. chromosomes, and protection of DNA transcription, and Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids, - Creates False Parallelism.



These both options have similar problem. You cannot introduce semi-colon and then just leave it half way while introducing examples/parts of the list. It is fine to use semi-colon if there are two connected sentences but not in this case.



This is best of the lot. Maintains Parallelism in the perfect sense and appropriate usage of semi-colon.

Takeaway: Semi-colon can be used to link two connecting Independent clauses and also to introduce examples in a complex sentence.
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A. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription, Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids, - Defies Parallelism. The author is trying to list down the components of a cell with an explanation of each. However, in the original sentence, it has falsely listed down the explanations as part of the ongoing list. Incorrect.

B. chromosomes, and protection of DNA transcription, and Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids, - The comma between chromosomes and protection isn't required because of two reasons - (1) it creates a false sense of parallelism and looks like they're all part of the bigger list which is not true, (2) we do not use [comma + and] in case of only two items in a list.
Also, the explanation for Golgi apparatus using 'or' creates confusion here since there are so many items in this sentence. A simpler way to put it out would be using just a comma between the term and its definition. Incorrect.

C. chromosomes, and protecting DNA transcription, Golgi apparatus, a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids; - The comma between the chromosomes and protecting DNA is incorrect. The definition bit for the Golgi apparatus has been corrected but even then, the placement semi colon after that is incorrect since we are not using it to separate other items in the list. Incorrect.

D. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription; Golgi apparatus, to package proteins and lipids in a complex of folded membranes - Use of 'to' in the explanation of GA is incorrect. It shows intention but we just want to show the function here. Also, the semicolon is again used to separate just one part of the sentence. Incorrect.

E. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription; Golgi apparatus, a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids; - This one correctly deals with all the issues listed down above and presents the parallelism in the simplest form. Correct.

A eukaryotic cell has a nucleus, the brain of the cell housing the chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription, Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids, and plasma membrane, the protective barrier responsible for controlling the passage of all molecules into and out of the cell.

Eukaryotic cell has a nucleus which is the brain of the cell , Golgi apparatus, and plasma membrane... After each element in the list, is the modifier modifying that elements describing more about it

A. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription, Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids,
brain housing the chromosomes and brain protecting -> looks good
'or' followed by Golgi apparatus suggests additional parallelism that doesn't exist. and as there are modifiers specified after Brain and plasma membrane, modifier is expected following Golgi apparatus

B. chromosomes, and protection of DNA transcription, and Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids,
Run on nouns in the first part. Brain of the cell protection of DNA transcription -> not cool

C. chromosomes, and protecting DNA transcription, Golgi apparatus, a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids;
brain housing the chromosomes and brain protecting -> looks good
Brain <modifier>, Golgi apparatus, modifier; and plasma membrane, modifier -> semi colon is used to define the list but would expect semi color before Golgi apparatus as well

D. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription; Golgi apparatus, to package proteins and lipids in a complex of folded membranes
brain housing the chromosomes and brain protecting -> looks good
Brain <modifier>; Golgi apparatus, <function>, and plasma membrane <modifier> to maintain parallelism, would need modifier describing Golgi apparatus instead of describing its function

E. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription; Golgi apparatus, a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids;
brain housing the chromosomes and brain protecting -> looks good
Brain <comma+modifier>; Golgi apparatus <comma+modifier> ; and plasma membrane <comma+modifier>
semicolon determines elements in the list, and its specified for all elements , modifier appears after each element -> Parallelism looks great.

E is the best!

Here look at the meaning Golgi apparatus is a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids so we don't need or. So Incorrect

Here look at the meaning Golgi apparatus is a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids so we don't need or. So Incorrect


Two Independent sentence is connected by semicolon here second underlined part is not Independent sentence. Hence Incorrect.


We need semicolon after the membranes. Also Golgi apparatus is a complex of folded membranes and this option alters the meaning. Hence Incorrect.


Correct. We can use the Semi Colon to explain the list of items.
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Official Explanation

A eukaryotic cell has a nucleus, the brain of the cell housing the chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription, Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids, and plasma membrane, the protective barrier responsible for controlling the passage of all molecules into and out of the cell.

A. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription, Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids,
B. chromosomes, and protection of DNA transcription, and Golgi apparatus, or a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids,
C. chromosomes, and protecting DNA transcription, Golgi apparatus, a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids;
D. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription; Golgi apparatus, to package proteins and lipids in a complex of folded membranes
E. chromosomes and protecting DNA transcription; Golgi apparatus, a complex of folded membranes for packaging proteins and lipids;

Looking at these answer choices is a little overwhelming. There are a lot of technical words and a lot of punctuation marks, and it is not even quite clear what the sentence is even trying to say. If we look a little closer at the answer choices, the biggest difference between them is the placement and type of punctuation, either commas or semicolons.

Let’s start by trying to figure out what the sentence is talking about by looking at the first non-underlined portion. “A eukaryotic cell has a nucleus, the brain of the cell housing the . . .” The subject of the sentence is “a eukaryotic cell.” The verb is “has,” which is telling us that the cell contains something—a nucleus. The word nucleus is followed by a comma. The content after that comma is a noun phrase that ends with another comma (the brain of the cell housing and protecting DNA transcription). When a noun or noun phrase is enclosed in commas and follows another noun or noun phrase (like nucleus) then the phrase in commas is known as an appositive. It is further describing the noun it follows.

Now, let’s look at the non-underlined portion that comes after our underlined portion. If we ignore the underlined portion and the appositive phrase modifying “nucleus,” the sentence reads “A eukaryotic cell has a nucleus and plasma membrane, the protective barrier responsible for controlling the passage of all molecules into and out of the cell.” Once again, “plasma membrane” is a noun followed by noun phrase enclosed in commas. When we ignore all the appositives, our sentence says “A eukaryotic cell has a nucleus and plasma membrane.” This sentence is a list! When lists includes lots of commas, then semicolons are used to separate the items in the list. Let’s eliminate any answer choices that don’t have semicolons. Options A and B cannot be the best answers.

Option C only has one semicolon and places it at the very end of the answer choice. Only one semicolon would not create a complex list, and instead a single semicolon is used to connect two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction. What comes after the semicolon must be an independent clause. The part after the semicolon would read “And plasma membrane, the protective barrier responsible for controlling the passage of all molecules into and out of the cell.” A coordinating conjunction is not necessary with a semicolon separating two independent clauses, so the “and” is redundant. “And plasma membrane” does not make any sense as a modifier at the beginning of the sentence. The independent clause that was created by the semicolon in Option C is awkward at best and nonsensical at worst. Option C cannot be the best answer.

Option D appears to place a semicolon between two items in the list. If we remove the appositives, the sentence in Option D would read “A eukaryotic cell has a nucleus; Golgi apparatus, and plasma membrane. A single semicolon once again tries to create two independent clauses instead of a complex list, and the second “independent” clause doesn’t make any sense. Option D cannot be the best answer.

Option E uses a semicolon to separate each item in the list (nucleus, Golgi apparatus, and plasma membrane) and each item’s appositive phrase. This is the correct use of a semicolon in a complex list, and the sentence, though long, does make sense. Option E is the best answer.
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Well done, TheNightKing! You cracked the code on this one! Great job focusing on punctuation instead of wording - it looks like you found the list formatting pretty quickly!

Kudos to you!
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Well done, ashita5678! You cracked the code on this one! Great job finding the punctuation and parallelism problems!

Kudos to you!
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Well done, snoep! Another great break-down of a GMAT question! Kudos to you!
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Well done, NandishSS! Great explanation! Kudos to you!
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Comma (,) is for short pause.
Semi colon (;) is for long pause.

When we are dealing long statements or long list of examples as given in above SC question, we need long pause to get the essence of statement. Therefore, semicolon is justified in such cases.

That's my point.