Exercise 50. Analyze the -ing forms in the sentences below. State which of them are gerunds and which verbal nouns:

Model:

1. Once he got started there was no holding him back, ("holding" - a gerund)

2. She kept telling us that speaking fast was not at all the same thing as speaking fluently, ("telling" - a gerund, "speaking"- gerunds)

3. "I don't hold with all this dieting," she went on, ("dieting" - a verbal noun, is modified by a demonstrative pronoun "this")

4. The season was bad - the daily takings hardly paid for the rent of the hall. ("takings" - a verbal noun, has an article, is modified by an adjective "daily", is in the plural)

1. She read the first act between a fitting and a rehearsal, made up her mind to play Kate and there was no persuading her that the part was too young for her. 2. The whirring and banging of the lift kept her awake most of the night. 3. She kept repeating the bright sayings of her chil­dren to bored friends and relations. 4. She insisted on my showing her the letter and explaining who Pat was. 5. On getting home she felt so faint and exhausted that she went to bed without taking off her make up and creaming her face. 6. On being told to her face that she was a liar and a schemer Polly felt like giggling and restrained herself with difficulty. 7. She broke the fastening of the purse in her hurry to get the papers out. 8. She looked with distaste at the toilet table. Dust, spilt powder and hair combings everywhere. 9. You have never learned the way of treating children kindly but without undue familiarity. 10. She promised to send me the cutting the moment she found it. 11.I could just see a faint glimmering of light in the distance. 12. For some time she said nothing and we could only hear the clicking of her false teeth. A certain sign of grow­ing irritation. 13. On being asked what her plans were she gave a most evasive answer. 14. She lost this job through falling ill at the wrong time. 15. Her first big part was Katherine in "The Taming of the Shrew".

Exercise 51. Analyze the -ing-forms stating whether they are gerunds or verbal nouns.

1. I hate the idea of your wasting your time. 2. I was afraid of being called upon to give evidence against her. 3. The twins devotedly gave up their day to the cutting of sandwiches. 4. She was put out by being kept waiting. 5. I sat in the sun, extremely tired in my bones after the crossing of the mountain on the previous day. 6. She was angry at being put beside Tom. 7. He was engaged in overwhelming Helen with reproaches for not having told him of Jack's change of sleeping quarters. 8. It was hot walking through the town but the sun was starting to go down and it was very pleasant. 9. Godfrey felt guilty at having gossiped to Olive about Lottie's changes in her will. 10. It was good walking on the road. But it was lovely walking in the woods. 11. Poirot lost no time in visiting M. Hautet. 12. He crossed back into the doorway, and, slowly, to keep down the beating of his heart, mounted the single flight of stairs and rang the bell. 13. There was a tramping of feet. 14. No one ever thought of protecting Isabel. 15. He walked to the edge of the terrace, and looked down into the darkness; he could just see the powdering of the daisies on the unmown lawn. 16. Raising good cotton, riding well, dancing lightly were the things that mattered. 17. It was a habit with him to tell her the doings of his day. 18. He liked dancing quickly. 19. Lewis had offices in Zurich and London, and his comings and goings were casual. 20. "I'm not very clever at guessing people's ages," she said coldly.