Language Work: -ing forms

	Help box I: The Gerund The gerund looks exactly like the present participle, i.e., it is formed from a verb and ends in -ing. The difference is that the present participle is a verbal adjective and the gerund is a verbal noun. Here are examples: Smoking is not allowed in this carriage. Lucille likes dancing. Seeing is believing. Olaf is fond of walking. George earns his living by selling washing-machines!)
Forms of the Gerund
Active			Passive
simple Perfect		reading	being read
		having read	having been read

Ex. 1. Translate into Russian paying attention to the Gerund.

1. Reading French is easier than speaking it.

2. Looking after children requires patience.

3. We postponed making a decision till he had been given more information.

4. He walked a long way, without looking either to the right or left.

5. I don’t mind being kept waiting.

6. When I’m on holiday, I enjoy not having to get up early.

7. Don’t keep interrupting me while I’m speaking.

8. By inserting special command codes into the text, the user can control how it will be printed out.

9. Word-wrap facility makes inputting a text much easier than using a typewriter.

10. The user controls the program by choosing one item from the menu.

11. Automatic hyphenation is the splitting of a word between two lines.

Help box II: Gerund or Infinitive

Verbs followed by the Gerund

Some of the verbs followed by the gerund are: avoid, dislike, enjoy, finish, mind (= object to),

e.g. He couldn't avoid meeting them.

He enjoys asking questions but dislikes answering them.

Verbs followed by the Infinitive

Verbs followed by the Infinitive are: (a) all the modal verbs, (b) the verbs expect, hope, mean (= intend), promise, want and certain others,

(Modal verbs) e.g. You ought to try harder.

You must do this work. I shall see him tomorrow.

(Other verbs) e.g. My friends expect to arrive here on Saturday and I hope to meet them at the airport.

They mean to stay with us for a month. I want to learn English and I promise to work hard.

Verbs followed by the Infinitive or the Gerund

Some of these are: begin, hate, learn, like, prefer, stop, forget, remember, hear, see,

e.g. At school children learn reading and writing.

He is learning to fly an aeroplane.

In the examples just given, it doesn't make much difference in meaning whether the gerund or the infinitive is used, but with the verbs stop, forget, remember there is a difference.

Forget

The verb forget with the infinitive means "fail to remember",

e.g. I am afraid that he will forget to write.

With the gerund it means "lose the memory of",

e.g. I shall never forget seeing the Swiss Alps for the first time.

Remember

The infinitive used with, remember refers to a future action,

e.g. Please remember to post this letter before four o'clock.

The gerund used with remember refers to past action,

e.g. I remember seeing you at the Christmas party last year.

Ex. 2. Choose the right form (Gerund or Infinitive) in these sentences.

1. He remembered (to drive) along the road just before the accident happened, but he couldn’t remember the accident itself.

2. She doesn’t allow us (to smoke) in the house.

3. Don’t forget (to pay) for the papers.

4. As we were driving along we saw a good restaurant, so we stopped (to have) dinner, and my friend stopped (to say) he was hungry.

5. I tried to make him (to understand) it was no good (to get) angry.

6. Lusy didn’t feel like (to go) to the cinema last night and refused (to go) with me.

7. I hope Hob will remember (to meet) him.

8. I can’t help (to feel) sorry for animals in a circus.

Ex. 3. Translate into English paying attention to the Gerund.

1. Плавание – один из самых популярных видов спорта.

2. Бесполезно звонить ему, в это время его никогда нет дома.

3. Я не люблю, когда мне говорят неправду.

4. Я помню, что опустила письмо в ящик.

5. Она не могла не думать о родителях.

6. Перестань пить крепкий чай перед сном, и ты будешь хорошо спать.

7. Программа Word используется для подготовки и редактирования писем и других документов.

8. Пользователь управляет программой, выбирая один пункт из меню.

Task 1. Work in pairs. Read the table below which summarizes the most relevant features of two word-processing programs. The characteristics of each program are marked with a tick (+). Student A has Printext and Student В has Publisher. Explain to your partner why your program is better.

Example:

A: With Printext I can ...

B: Yes, but you can't ...

A: However, it is possible to ... whereas with Publisher you can't...

B: Yes, but don't forget that with Publisher you can ... Moreover, ...

A: OK. I understand what you mean, but what about ...?

Characteristics	Student A Printext	Student В Publisher
Instantaneous WYSIWYG and editing Variety of font types, styles and size Editing facilities: Copy, Cut, Paste, Undo, Select All Centring and indenting paragraphs. Special column formats. Hyphenation and justification of text with optimum line-breaking Spell checker, grammar checker and thesaurus Can find and replace words even in unopened files Automatic numbering of chapters and sections. Automatic generation of indexes and tables of contents. Cross-reference facilities Allows you to generate maths formulas, and diagrams Graphics tools: You can have the text wrap around the graphic or flow through it. You can scale and rotate graphics Import and export facilities. You can transfer files to other IBM PCs and Macintosh applications You can record voice annotations to insert comments into a document Includes Internet connection tools and allows you to create HTML pages for the Web	+ + + + + + + +	+ + + + + + + + +