Which of the following statements about absolute phrases is false?

Because Joe is a tennis instructor, some of our weekend guests expected him to give free lessons, while others simply pestered him for free advice.

The police stood guard over the smoking ruins of the town, their senses alert to any sign of looters.

Which statement about phrases is false?

Coordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs, and subordinating conjunctions are all types of .... that are used to connect ideas and aid coherence within and between sentences.

Trying to sell that lemon of a car has become a lesson in futility.

The principle of .... states that, in proper sentence structure, a pronoun usually refers to something earlier in the text and must agree in number (singular or plural) with the thing to which it refers.

A modifier, which can be an adjective or adverb, or a phrase or clause acting as an adjective or adverb, should be placed as close as possible to the word it modifies.

A phrase may function in a sentence as a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.

The principle of .... requires that the word or phrase patterns in a sentence be similar in order to create symmetry and emphasize the likeness between two or more ideas.

Sally can name all of the states in alphabetical order; consequently, her friends are impressed.