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И. П. Крылова, Е. М. Гордон -- Грамматика совре...doc
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§ 217. The ing-form as a prepositional object is also found af- ter various kinds of adjectives — adjectives proper, predicative

adjectives and adjectivized participles. The most commonly occur-

ring of them are: absorbed in, (un)accustomed to, afraid of, amused at, angry with, annoyed at, ashamed of, aware of, (in)capable

of, careful about/in, careless of, certain of, clever at, (un)conscious of, content with, delighted at, different from, embarrassed at, ex cited about, far from, fond of, fortunate in, frightened of, furious at, given to, good (better) at, grateful for, happy in/at, interested in, irritated at, keen on, miserable at, nice about, pleased at, proud

of, responsible for, right in, scared at/of, set against, set on, sick of, skilled in/at, slow in, sorry for, successful in/at, sure of, sur- prised at, thankful for, tired of, touched at, upset at, (un)used to, worried about, wrong in, etc.

e.g. If only I were capable of doing that!

We were never very careful about taking precautions.

"You look for trouble, don't you?" "Only because I'm pretty

certain of finding it.

" I was fairly content with letting things go as they were. Somehow I wasn't too interested in trying to get back into

that work.

I was tired of doing much the same thing every day. "I'm sorry for giving you so much trouble," she said. I felt that he was excited about showing me his new car. He was unconscious of Anna standing beside him.

For means of expressing the subject of the action denoted by the ing-form see "Verbs", § 166.

(For comparison with the infinitive see §§ 187 and 238.)

§ 218. The ing-form may serve as object of a verb in a special sentence pattern with it as a formal subject. The use of the ing- form in this sentence pattern is found after a very limited number of verbs and set phrases (which are verb equivalents) but it is typical of spoken English.

e.g- He said to his wife: "It doesn't matter much being liked, for

this kind of life."

When it comes down to getting a job with a living wage at- tached to it, he's prepared to put his theories in his pocket.

She was, as her colleagues said, "good on paper", but when it came to speaking in committees she was so apprehensive that she spent sleepless hours the night before. For the means of expressing the subject of the action denoted by the ing-form see § 166.

(For comparison with the infinitive see §§ 189 and 239.)

§ 219. The ing-form may be used as a direct object of an adjec- tive in a sentence pattern with if as a formal subject. This kind of object is also lexically dependent — it regularly occurs after it is worth.

e.g. It is worth remembering that he has once been a boxer. It is worth finding it out.

Sometimes the ing-form is found after a number of other ad- jectives such as amusing, banal, comfortable, difficult, dreary, easy, great, hopeless, lovely, nice, odd, pleasant, strange, tough, useless, wonderful, etc.

e.g. It was difficult getting him to do it.

It won't be easy finding our way back. There's not much moon. It will be rather nice seeing him again. It was useless arguing with Jane.

But the ing-form occurs after these adjectives only in spoken English, and such sentences are often emotionally coloured. As a general rule, we find an infinitive here (see "Verbs", § 190).

For the means of expressing the subject of the action denoted by the ing-form see § 166.