English for Teachers/Unit 6/Chapter 3

by Daniel D. Holt

Unit 6

Chapter 3

Gerunds (pp.476-478)

Gerunds in English look similar to present participles (V+ing). Gerunds, however, are always used as nouns - as subjects or objects,
i.e. : Swimming is good exercise.
I like swimming.

The following verbs are always followed by gerunds, not infinitives: enjoy, mind, stop, avoid, consider, appreciate, finish, deny, admit, risk, dislike.

The following verbs are followed by either gerunds or infinitives: start, begin, continue, like, neglect, hate, cease, love, prefer, intend.

I. Writing

1. Find the seven gerunds in the Comprehensive Reading.
2. Tell whether they are in subject or object positions.

II. Exchanges

A: Do you like flying?
B: Well, I like landings but not take-offs.
A: Doesn't that guy do a lot of travelling?
B: Sure. It's part of his job.
A: Sailing is a great sport, isn't it?
B: Yeah, but I've never tried it.

III. Quotations

All travelling becomes dull in direct proportion to its rapidity.

- John Ruskin

I travelled among unknown men,
In lands beyond the sea,
Nor, England! did I know till then,
What love I bore to thee.

- Wordsworth

III. Quotations (continued)

The fool wanders, the wise man travels.

- Fuller 1732

Travels far, he that knows much.

- Clarke 1639

IV. Writing

Make sentences out of the following groups of words.

1. educational/is/travelling
2. to/crash/make/landing/had/he/a
3. not/is/profitable/wandering/often/foreign/through/countries
4. rapidly/travelling/place/the/look/makes/every/same
5. country/appreciate/makes/own/us/our/travelling

V. Writing

Write five things that:

1. are educational
2. are not profitable
3. make us appreciate our own country