Answer:
The prepositional phrases are highlighted below:
There once was a merchant in Baghdad who sent his servant to market to buy provisions. In a little while, the servant came back, white and trembling, and said, “Master, just now when I was in the marketplace I was jostled by a woman in the crowd. When I turned I saw it was Death that jostled me. She looked at me and made a threatening gesture. Now, lend me your horse, and I will ride away from this city and avoid my fate. I will go to Samarra and there, Death will not find me.” The merchant lent him his horse, The servant mounted it, and dug his spurs in its flanks, and as fast as the horse could gallop he went. Then the merchant went down to the marketplace and he saw me standing in the crowd. He came to me and said, “Why did you make a threatening gesture to my servant when you saw him this morning?” “That was not a threatening gesture,” I said, “it was only a start of surprise. I was astonished to see him in Bagdad, for I had an appointment with him tonight in Samarra.”
Explanation:
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition and an object. It can also include modifiers of that object. Prepositional phrases can function as adjectives or as adverbs, modifying nouns or verbs, respectively. To find them in a text like the one above, we must be familiar with at least the most commonly used prepositions, such as: to, with, from, in, by, after, before, about, during, of, etc. As was stated in the question, prepositional phrases do not include verbs.
Examples:
Did you see the boy in the corner?
Before the war, my father was a happy man.
