Grammar in use

1. Read the story below and find all the gerunds. State their functions.

THE LAST ONE?

After reading an article “Cigarette Smoking Endangers Your Health” I lit a cigarette to calm my nerves. I kept smoking with concentration and pleasure as I was sure that this would be my last cigarette. For a whole week I abstained from smoking, and during this time my wife suffered terribly. I had all the usual symptoms of someone giving up smoking: a bad temper and an enormous appetite. My friends kept on offering me cigarettes and cigars. They made no effort to hide their amusement whenever I produced a packet of sweets from my pocket. After 7 days of this I went to a party. Everybody around me was smoking and I felt extremely uncomfortable. When my old friend Brian insisted on my taking a cigarette it was more than I could bear. I took one guiltily, lit it and began smoking with satisfaction. My wife was delighted that things had returned to normal once more. Anyway, as Brian pointed out, it is the easiest thing in the world to give up smoking. He himself has done it lots of times.

Answer the questions:

1. What was the headline of the article Mr. Brown read?

2. What impression did it produce on him?

3. Why did he light a cigarette after reading this article?

4. How long did he abstain from smoking?

5. Was his wife pleased that he had given up smoking? Why or why not?

6. Why did his friends keep offering him cigarettes?

7. What did he keep in his pockets? Why?

8. Why did he feel extremely uncomfortable at the party he went to?

9. Who insisted on his taking a cigarette? Why?

10. Was his wife really delighted that Mr. Brown started smoking again?

11. Why do you think Mr. Brown failed to quit smoking?

12. What can we do to help people break the smoking habit?

13. Do you know anyone who tried to give up smoking and succeeded? Tell the class about them.

14. What advice would you give Mr. Brown?

2. Read the following articles and answer the questions below. Nurses can help people give up smoking

Nurses have been urged – as members of a health profession – to study the facts about tobacco and disease and use the information to help their colleagues and patients to break the smoking habit.

Nurses themselves need to change their attitude, because they have not shown a good example to the community or to patients about cigarette smoking says state registered nurse Marjorie Schurer, a health visitor in Bedford.

“They must all be aware of the dangers of lung cancer, but are they aware of the minor complaints of ill health and of the extent to which these are increased in smokers?” she asks in the Nursing Times today.

Ms. Schurer gives the higher rates of ‘minor illnesses ‘ – such as sleeplessness – and also of the major killers, cancer, heart disease and bronchitis, among smokers compared with non-smokers.

She also shows that tuberculosis of the lungs, particularly among older men, is more common in smokers, and that indigestion appears to be commoner among smokers.

“Evidence suggests that persuading expectant mothers not to smoke cigarettes would do more to reduce infant mortality in the UK than any other single action,” she says.

Sources of evidence are given for all her statements of damage from smoking, as are the facts about the harm caused to people who inhale other folk’s smoke.

“Babies of parents who smoke are more prone to pneumonia and bronchitis in the first year of life than those of non-smoking parents,” she says.