Gerund Exercise 1

Fill in the blanks with suitable Gerunds:

1.    A ….. (speed) car hit a man ….. (wait) at a bus-stop, even without ….. (care) to stop. The ….. (injure) person was rushed to a nearby hospital. The doctors did their best ….. (save) the man who lay unconscious. After a ….. (try) time, the doctors saved a precious life.

Ans.: 1. Speeding           2. Waiting        3. Caring         4. Injured         5. to save        6. trying

 
2.    I had a chance ….. (travel) in a second class railway compartment. It is difficult  ….. (forget) the unpleasant experience. The passengers have a bad habit of ….. (throw) peals of fruit and all sorts of rubbish on the floor of the compartment. ….. (smoke) at all hours and in the places, betel and tobacco ….. (chew) is a common sight. People are not tired of ….. (use) foul language regardless of the presence of fellow-passengers.

Ans.: 1. to travel             2. to forget       3. Throwing     4. Smoking      5. Chewing      6. using,  

 
3.    Gangtok, the capital of Sikkim, appears like any other town of urban India, but it is the ….. (surround) places that are worth …..(visit). One of the most ….. (interest) places is Yumthang, known for ….. (be) a beautiful as Switzerland. ….. (situate) at an attitude of 12000 feet, it is well-known for its hot springs. It is desirable ….. (visit) Gangtok at least once in life.

Ans.: 1. Surrounding       2. Visiting         3. Interesting   4. Being           5. Situated       6. To visit

 
4.    A crow while ….. (sit) on an electric pole slipped and got ….. (trap) in the wires. Its ….. (scream) cries attracted at least fifty crows. They began ….. (cry) very loudly. Hundreds of people ….. (work) in different buildings came out and saw the crow ….. (struggle) for its freedom. A young man from the crowd climbed the pole and freed the bird.

Ans.: 1. Sitting    2. Trapped       3. Screaming  4. To cry          5. Working       6. struggling    

 
5.    Even as a boy Thomas Edison worked hard ….. (earn) enough money ….. (buy) the things he needed for ….. (do) his experiments. Later he learnt telegraphy and started ….. (work) as a telegraphist. He spent a lot of time ….. (experiment) in order to find out new things. His employers started ….. (feel) that he was wasting his time.

Ans.: to earn       2. To buy         3. Doing           4. Working       5. Experimenting         6. feeling

 
6.    After circling the globe and ….. (look) at scores of museums, the trustees decide ….. (appoint) an eminent architect, Richard who had a rich experience of ….. (design) museums. Richard ….. (known) for his excellence, started working on this project in 1983 at an ….. (estimate) cost of $ 100 million and completed it in 14 years time after …..(spend) a billion dollars.

Ans.: 1. Looking  2. To appoint   3. Designing    4. Known         5. Estimated    6. spending

7.    ….. (be)  sick for a long time, Isha stopped ….. (take) interest in anything. She just kept on …..(think) about her illness. She would not listen to any advice. She developed a habit of …..(argue) endlessly. ….. (know) that it was more a mental problem than a physical one, a specialist began ….. (treat) her on these lines.

Ans.: 1. Being 2. Taking         3. Thinking      4. Arguing        5. Knowing      6. To treat