<p>Recent medical breakthroughs, including the "discovery of" a vaccine to slow AIDS virus, "have encouraged" researchers; "and" a cure is still "eluding" them.</p>
<p>The answer is and. The answer explanation says to replace "and" with "but". However, isn't it incorrect to have a coordinating conjunction after a semicolon?</p>
<p>Can someone please clear this up?</p>
<p>You should notice that there’s a positive to negative transition in the Two sentences, therefore “but” is needed to make them flow together. I’m sorry if i don’t make myself really clear :s</p>
<p>; cannot be followed by AND in most cases</p>
<p>yeah, i understand. But isn’t it suppose to be “however”? Because “but” is a coordinating conjunction and you’re not suppose to use a semicolon with a coordinating conjunction. Correct me if i’m wrong.</p>
<p>It’s a comma, not a semicolon.</p>
<p>This question is from the Barron’s book. Once again, proves the notion: stick to the CB tests.</p>