V01-11

Question

The university library offers most of the resources Ronald will  need; except for Spanish translations of certain books, which he  will have to request from a neighboring university.

A. need; except for Spanish translations of certain books, which he 
B. need except for Spanish translations of certain books, which he 
C. need, accept for Spanish translations of certain books, which he 
D. need, with the exception of certain Spanish translations of books which he 
E. need, but there are few books in Spanish which he

Bunuel · Answer

Official Solution:

The university library offers most of the resources Ronald will  need; except for Spanish translations of certain books, which he  will have to request from a neighboring university.

A. need; except for Spanish translations of certain books, which he 
B. need except for Spanish translations of certain books, which he 
C. need, accept for Spanish translations of certain books, which he 
D. need, with the exception of certain Spanish translations of books which he 
E. need, but there are few books in Spanish which he

The second sentence is incomplete and must corrected by the addition of a comma and appropriate subordinating conjunction.
 
A.  Except  is a subordinating conjunction that makes the sentence after the semicolon incomplete.
 
 B. Except works properly as a subordinating conjunction here, joining the fact that Ronald has access to most of the resources he will need to the fact that Spanish translations will not be available. 
 
C.  Accept  sounds like  except , but is not correct.
 
D. The usage  with the exception of  is idiomatic -  except for  is concise and idiomatic. The phrase  certain Spanish translations  of books is wordy and unnecessary
 
E. The conjunction  but  in this option changes the meaning of the sentence, as does the adjusted phrase  there are few books in Spanish which he .

Answer: B

melin94 · Answer

D) should be correct.
Semicolon introduces to INDEPENDENT clauses; therefore, both need a subject and working verb. 
Only D avoids that construction by introducing a prepositional phrase (No need of S+V)

sayantanc2k · Answer

In option D, "with the exception of " is a wrong idiom - "except for" is more concise and better. Moreover "certain Spanish translations" does not make sense. Thus option D is wrong.

In option B, "except for Spanish translations of certain books..." is not an independent clause, and hence does not require a semicolon before it. "Except" is a preposition and "except for Spanish translations of certain books" is a prepositional phrase used as a verb modifier for the verb "need".

Option B is hence better than option D.

YYZ · Answer

Can you please explain why in this post: https://gmatclub.com/forum/mauritius-wa ... 73682.html the expert states that starting a clause with except makes it independent and thus requires a period or semicolon OR a conjunction like "but" before "except"

rajeet1234 · Answer

The reason why i eliminated B was that i thought the sentence between the two commas is the one which doesn't contribute to the sentence greatly which is not the case over here. Where did i go wrong?

GMATNinja · Answer

There are situations when the information between two commas is just a modifier, and some people will advise you to "ignore it" under certain circumstances, such as when you're evaluating subject-verb agreement. For example:

The buffet of African dishes,  including ndole and several okra-based stews , is truly breathtaking.

For a moment, you could "ignore" the part between commas, so that it's easier to see that "is" is the correct form of the verb. Fair enough.

But that does NOT mean that you want to ignore things just because they're between commas! That's a terrible habit to get into. Pretty much everything in an GMAT sentence is there for a reason. It might not have a grammatical error, but everything has at least some impact on the meaning of the sentence. So if you think about what the sentence -- in its entirety, without stripping things out -- is actually saying, (B) doesn't look so bad, right?

I hope this helps!

GMATNinja · Answer

The word "except" doesn't automatically create an independent clause. Here's a version of the sentence in the post you linked to:

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years,  except in the domains of administration and teaching , the English language was never really spoken on the island.

Check out the part in blue: "except in the domains of administration and teaching" isn't an independent clause, right? It's just a modifier that describes the full, independent clause that follows ("the English language was never really spoken on the island"). The expert that made the post was just saying that the sentence in its current form has two independent clauses, separated only by a comma. But it's not true that "except" automatically creates an independent clause.

I hope this helps a bit!

ruchik · Answer

Hi,
Thanks for the explanation. One follow-up question though.
In the given question plugging in the answer choice the statement will look as follow:
The university library offers most of the resources Ronald will need, except for Spanish translations of certain books, which he will have to request from a neighboring university.

Now if i look at the above statement from the perspective you mentioned. "which he will have to request from a neighboring university" should be an independent clause. Is it the case here? Is not a comma which modifier, clause modifying noun phrase "Spanish translations of certain books".

Please help me resolve this doubt.  GMATNinja

GMATNinja · Answer

Yes, the which clause ("which he will have to request from a neighboring university") does indeed modify the noun phrase "Spanish translations of certain books"! But, by itself, "which he will have to request from a neighboring university" clearly isn't an independent clause. Even "he will have to request from a neighboring university" wouldn't qualify as a complete thought because it leaves us wondering, "He will have to request  what ?"

The which clause has a subject (he) and a verb (will have to request), but that doesn't make it an independent clause. The only independent clause in the OA is the first part of the sentence ("the university library offers most of the resources Ronald will need"), and there's no reason why we would have to have another independent clause in the sentence.

I hope this helps!

Bunuel · Answer

The question has been revised and edited. Thank you  sayantanc2k  !!!

PyjamaScientist · Answer

sayantanc2k  
Could you please explain why option A is incorrect. How does a semi-colon before  except   make it a wrong answer choice?

sayantanc2k · Answer

A semicolon is used to separate two independent clauses. (Independent clause is a complete sentence standing alone, having a subject and a predicate.)

In option A, the part after the semicolon ("except for Spanish translations of certain books, which he will have to request from a neighboring university") is not an independent clause (i.e. not a complete sentence, which can stand alone) - this part consists of a phrase starting with "except" ("except for Spanish translations of certain books") and a dependent clause ("which he will have to request from a neighboring university") . There is no subject or no main verb, making it an incomplete sentence.

JJDa · Answer

Why is E wrong?   I have been struggling for 20 minutes or so here.

ellenckh · Answer

What's wrong with E? In SC, we should not care about the meaning of the original sentence.

szcz · Answer

I dont understand what is wrong with option E. Sure the meaning is completely different. But as far as I can tell, there is no grammatical error. Can you help me out with this?  GMATNinja  @Sajad1994  KarishmaB

KarishmaB · Answer

The problem with (E) is that its meaning is not logical.

... but there are few books in Spanish which he will have to request from a neighboring university.

'Few' means negligible. 'I have few friends' means 'I have almost no friends.' 
So use of 'few' is incorrect here. We should use 'a few' which means 'some.'

Another issue is 'books in Spanish.' It is a bit ambiguous. It could say 'Spanish books' to clarify that he needs some books written in Spanish. Or it could say 'Lord of the Rings in Spanish' which implies that Lord of the Rings was originally written in another language. Or it could say 'Spanish translations of some books' if what we want to say is that he needs Spanish translations of some books originally written in other languages. We don't know whether the books we are talking about were written originally in Spanish or they are Spanish translations. Considering that other options clarify what is meant, this option is incorrect.

ShaunakSawant · Answer

I eliminated D because I thought certain is misplaced modifier

BottomJee · Answer

I think this is a  high-quality  question and I agree with explanation.

T4Star · Answer

Hi!

I am a bit confused here:
Does 'comma which' modify the noun phrase 'Spanish translations of certain books'?
Why does it not modify only the noun 'books'?

If I change the sentence as follows:
 except for Spanish translations of certain books, which were recommended by his professor.

In this case, does 'comma which' modify the noun 'certain books' or the 'Spanish translations'?

Thanks!

V01-11

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