Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island
A. excepting for
B. except in
C. but except in
D.but excepting for
E. with the exception of

IMO B..but OA C...plz explain...
I thought but & except make redundancy error....and also phrase "except in domain of adminstration and teaching" is correctly modifying the clause...

Hmm...well none of the answer is really seems good..i imagine something like this:

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


B sound so great...But we are lacking a CONTRAST.
We need something that can give a flavor of contrast.

A, B are out because of that.
D is out "excepting for" --seems wrong.
Out of C and E.

E would have been correct if we say : but with the exception of the domains..., the English language was never really spoke....

Again E can be shorted to "But except in". So i reached C after eliminating all wrong option.

(b) is a run-on sentence.
"X was Y, except in Z" would be a sentence by itself.
therefore, "X was Y, except in Z, A was B" is a run-on (you can't tag 2 complete sentences together with a comma).

(c) is awkward, but at least it's correct; it links 2 complete sentences with "and".
Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years,
but
except in the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island

--

you said about choice (b):


no, it's not.

you can't "be a british colony except in those areas". that makes no sense; the island is either a british colony or not a british colony.

this is actually supposed to modify the FOLLOWING clause, as it does in the correct answer; those are the only domains in which english was spoken.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

I checked the word except and the correct idiom is: "except for" Can some body explain me in which cases use this idiom.
Thank you

Agendra, there are two contrasts set up in the sentence, so using both "but" and "except" not only escapes being redundant, it is *necessary* in order to deal with both contrasts properly..

Diana, you'll notice in our book we didn't say "except in" is wrong, we only gave "except for" as an example of a correct idiom. Either can be used if given the right context; what you can't use is "excepting [preposition]"..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Why is C better than D?
Thanks.

"excepting for" is unidiomatic; this combination is not allowed in proper english.

you can use "excepting" by itself in this sort of situation (i.e., when you want to point out an exception to a negative statement), but not with "for".

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

Does Choice E) also results in a run - on sentence here ?

yes, it does.

_________________
Being well-dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquillity [that] religion is powerless to bestow.
C.F. Forbes

Thank you Ron, pls, help me out.
pls, look at C and D:
Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years, excepting for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken on the island
A. excepting for
B. except in
C. but except in
D.but excepting for
E. with the exception of

I consult dictionary and see that both except and excepting are preposition. (maybe the dictionary is not so right as gmat standard).

My question is

is "except for" the 2-word preposition?

if "except for " is not 2-word preposition, we are using, in correct choice C, two prepositions. I do not know this use.

In English , we meet "from within". This is the case in which two prepositions are used. I do not know how to use them. Pls, help.

if "excepting" is a preposition , I thing we eliminate D because the preposition " in" is better than "for". Is my thinking correct?


Ron, how do we know , if you do not tell us, that "excepting" must be used alone? what book do we need to see. This is the reason I think this question is not easy.

thank you Ron.

I have no idea what you are talking about with "except for" and "from within". Neither of these show up in the question. Please be more careful when asking questions and do not bring up irrelevant issues..

If "excepting" is the preposition, you eliminate D because "excepting" does not take an extra preposition. Please note that this is one way in which "excepting" and "except" differ. These are just things you have to learn case by case when studying for the GMAT. And remember not to use outside resources that are not designed specifically for the GMAT, because the GMAT has its own ideas of what works and what doesn't..

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Sure!

Mauritius was a British colony for almost 200 years BUT the English language was never really spoken on the island.

EXCEPT for the domains of administration and teaching, the English language was never really spoken island.

We need to point out the odd situation (was a colony but didn't speak the language) using "but" and point out the exception using "except".

_________________
Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor

Ron, would u please tell us something about the use and differences among "except" "except for" and "excepting",when i came up to these three words and phrases, i got totally confused...

thank you.

I'm not sure this is a distinction you really need to worry about. Can you provide an example of a legitimate question that tests you on the difference among these three?

_________________
Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor