Can someone tell me what is an Absolute Phrase ?

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ani781: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 141; Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2011 4:35 amFollowed by: 1 member; Location: Edison; Thanked: 12 times

by ani781 » Sun Oct 06, 2013 8:11 am

Margaret Courtney-Clarke has traveled to remote dwellings in the Transvaal to photograph the art of Ndebele women, whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house.

A. whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house
B. whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries are embellished with old and new iconography, and their style is varying among women and houses
C. whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries are embellished with old and new iconography, and they are in styles that vary from woman to woman and house to house 52

D. with murals brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography, and their style varies among women and houses
E. with murals that are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography, and their styles vary among women and houses

The OA [spoiler][A][/spoiler]
In the source 700 SC, it explains as this option being the perfect use of an Absolute phrase.
Can someone pls explain me what is going on ?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Sun Oct 06, 2013 8:11 am

vinay1983: Legendary Member; Posts: 643; Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 4:27 amFollowed by: 7 members; Thanked: 48 times

by vinay1983 » Sun Oct 06, 2013 8:24 am

ani781 wrote:Margaret Courtney-Clarke has traveled to remote dwellings in the Transvaal to photograph the art of Ndebele women, whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house.

A. whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house
B. whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries are embellished with old and new iconography, and their style is varying among women and houses
C. whose murals are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries are embellished with old and new iconography, and they are in styles that vary from woman to woman and house to house 52

D. with murals brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography, and their style varies among women and houses
E. with murals that are brilliantly colored, their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography, and their styles vary among women and houses

The OA [spoiler][A][/spoiler]
In the source 700 SC, it explains as this option being the perfect use of an Absolute phrase.
Can someone pls explain me what is going on ?

I am not convinced with the OA.I think "murals are" needs "are" in the following phrases as well.

You can, for example never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to!

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theCodeToGMAT: Legendary Member; Posts: 1556; Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:18 pmFollowed by: 34 members; Thanked: 448 times; GMAT Score:650

by theCodeToGMAT » Sun Oct 06, 2013 8:50 am

I remember i have solved this question earlier and my answer was wrong

.. this is one of those question where i spent 30 minutes and i ended up with wrong answer

This question is aa Absolute phrase case
Clause: "whose murals are brilliantly colored"
Absolute Phrase 1: "their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new icono................"

{A} - CORRECT
{B} - INCORRECT; "among women and houses"; Absolute Phrase don't have VERB
{C} - INCORRECT; "their geometrical symmetries.... and they are in styles that " Not Parallel; Absolute Phrase don't have VERB
{D} - INCORRECT; parallelism issue -> Phrase - Phrase - Clause
{E} - INCORRECT; parallelism issue -> Clause - Phrase - Clause

Last edited by theCodeToGMAT on Sun Oct 06, 2013 9:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

R A H U L

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Mission2012: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 184; Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2012 10:04 pmFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 10 times

by Mission2012 » Sun Oct 06, 2013 9:12 am

HI Rahul,

Couple of questions -

1. Isn't Absolute phrase are kind of modifiers that have a noun and modifier. They modify the entire clause (subject + Verb) instead of just the subject. They also dont need to follow touch rule.

2. In the sentence below - "whose murals are brilliantly colored" is a relative clause and not an absolute phrase.

I agree that "their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new iconography and in a style that varies from woman to woman and house to house" has a noun and prepositional phrase modifier. But it is not modifying the clause "Margaret Courtney-Clarke has traveled to remote dwellings in the Transvaal to photograph the art of Ndebele women" but only "Art of Ndebele women".

This question if it is an Absolute phrase modifier case then it has shaken my concept of absolute phrase.

theCodeToGMAT wrote:I remember i have solved this question earlier and my answer was wrong .. this is one of those question where i spent 30 minutes and i ended up with wrong answer
This question is a "double" Absolute phrase case
Absolute Phrase 1: "whose murals are brilliantly colored"
Absolute Phrase 2: "their geometrical symmetries embellished with old and new icono................"

{A} - CORRECT
{B} - INCORRECT; "among women and houses"
{C} - INCORRECT; "their geometrical symmetries.... and they are in styles that " Not Parallel
{D} - INCORRECT; parallelism issue -> Phrase - Phrase - Clause
{E} - INCORRECT; parallelism issue -> Clause - Phrase - Clause

If you find my post useful -> please click on "Thanks"

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theCodeToGMAT: Legendary Member; Posts: 1556; Joined: Tue Aug 14, 2012 11:18 pmFollowed by: 34 members; Thanked: 448 times; GMAT Score:650

by theCodeToGMAT » Sun Oct 06, 2013 9:42 am

Mission2012 (sorry i don't know your name), i think you are confusing two things

Appositives: --> introduces extra noun for Main noun
stock Market crashed, an event that led many people to lose money
The skipper of the team, a Gemini, is coming to the party today

Absolute phrases: --> starts with possessive
He tiptoed across the room, his heart pounding like a kettle

Yeah correct, it's NOT a Absolute phrase.. as "verb" is present. (i will fix the error)

'their' refers to murals.. so its an Absolute phrase for MURALS.

After doing this question, i took a sleep of an hour..

I have one more bad question very similar and killer to this one.. I din't wanted to demotivate my friends ..So, I din't post...

That question will further shake concepts of Appositives

R A H U L

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