Carefully read the following sentence: "Although the curators disagreed in the beginning, they finally agreed to place the oil painting by Renoir alongside the drawing by Michelangelo."

The phrase "alongside the drawing by Michelangelo" is a [L. 9-10.1. b]

A. prepositional phrase.

B. participial phrase.

C. adverbial phrase.

D. verbal phrase.

The phrase "alongside the drawing by Michelangelo" is a A. prepositional phrase. The whole phrase starts with the preposition "alongside," which is why it is a prepositional phrase. Given that there are no verbs or adverbs in this phrase, it certainly cannot be a participial, verbal, or adverbial phrase. This is because participles and verbals refer to verbs, and adverbials to adverbs, which do not exist in this phrase.