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"except for" OR "except in"

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by yourshail123 » Sat Aug 11, 2012 4:02 am
OG 12th Edition SC Question 116:
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

Correct Answer given is (C). Correct. The two independent clauses are separated by but, and except in is an appropriate idiom.

However, as far as I know the correct idiom is 'except for'.
Please clarify.
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by confuse mind » Sat Aug 11, 2012 4:13 am
yourshail123 wrote:OG 12th Edition SC Question 116:
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

Correct Answer given is (C). Correct. The two independent clauses are separated by but, and except in is an appropriate idiom.

However, as far as I know the correct idiom is 'except for'.
Please clarify.
Please use 'spoiler' to hide the answers.

I hope you will agree with the first part that there are 2 independent and they have to be connected by a conjunction.
I went with opting for the best and 'but excepting for' is awkward and thus C.


Has there been one more option

'but except for' - I would have been confused. Experts?
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by yourshail123 » Sat Aug 11, 2012 4:22 am
yeah, 'but excepting for' is awkward.. 'but except for' should be the correct answer.. concern is why they have mentioned 'except in' as appropriate idiom??
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by yourshail123 » Sat Sep 08, 2012 5:04 pm
Experts Please chime in .. !!!!
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by tung0408 » Wed Feb 12, 2014 6:14 am
Except for is used to indicate exception of noun. To do this to other part of speech, we just need except ( without for)

And there are 2 independent clauses, so we need conjunction in between.
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by GMATGuruNY » Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:39 am
yourshail123 wrote:OG 12th Edition SC Question 116:
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
When a conjunction such as but serves to connect two independent clauses, any modifier that follows but serves to modify an element in the second clause.
In the OA, in the domains of administration and teaching serves as an adverb indicating where English was SPOKEN.
WHERE was English spoken?
It was spoken only IN THE DOMAINS OF ADMINISTRATION AND TEACHING.

Here, except for would imply the following:
English was spoken FOR the domains of administration and teaching.
This meaning makes no sense.
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by ceilidh.erickson » Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:01 am
Idioms are tricky, and with "except" in particular, there are several idiomatic forms used in different circumstances. Here, though, we need to look to the broader meaning of the entire sentence. Try rearranging the sentence:

The English language was never really spoken on the island except for the domains of administration and teaching.

Do we speak a language FOR these domains? No, we speak a language IN the domains of administration and teaching. It has less to do with the idiom of what preposition goes with "except," and more to do with a meaning issue.

Consider:
I hate all sports, except baseball.
I do well in all subjects, except in math.
He gets along well with others, except with his boss.

The GMAT is notoriously inconsistent with the way it tests idioms. My best advice is to always think about MEANING first, then deal with any idiom issues last.
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Harvard Graduate School of Education
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