What is the better way to word "need; except for Spanish translations of certain books, which he" in the following sentence?

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

Answer 1

Answer is B:

 

A: Semicolon doesn't belong here. It is normally used to unite two related sentences into one. In this case, there are no two separate sentences. Also, in general semicolons are so rarely used that I can't think of many examples where you need one for the correct GMAT answer.

 

B: This one is best--basically A with a comma.

 

C: "Accept" isn't "except." Seems the question writer was struggling for ideas on this one.

 

D: This is actually a really neat false alternative. It could actually work grammatically, but the problem is, it alters the meaning of the sentence. The original (A) talks about "Spanish translations of certain books," with the meaning being it's particular books that are in focus here. Answer choice (D) says "certain Spanish translations," and the focus here is on some of the translations rather than books. The change in meaning makes this answer choice incorrect.

 

E: This answer choice changes the meaning from talking about the books being present or not at the library and instead talks about needing to request books from another university for an unknown reason.