ali jabir Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 Hello everyone, I have this question please In 1987 a Canadian astronomer, Ian Shelton, spotted a supernova -------- looking at some photographs of the stars. A- was B- during C- as if D- while he was. I'm highly confused between choosing "during" , and " while he was". in the Grammar book. it's mentioned that " during" is a preposition that requires only a noun, noun phrase or a pronoun. Isn't " looking" a noun? because it has an -ing form. why we can't assume that the second clause is not reduced (reduced adverb clause)?. many thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lilybass Posted October 18, 2013 Share Posted October 18, 2013 Correct answer is D. In this sentence "looking" is part of verb phrase "was looking"- past continuous tense (was/were verb+ing). So, you have to have noun ("he") before that phrase. But for better understanding of grammar, you should divide this sentence in two simple sentence. "In 1987 a Canadian astronomer, Ian Shelton, spotted a supernova" while "he was looking at some photographs of the stars". And if you want to use "looking" as noun (verb+ing= gerund) you should have verb near it - but we do not have that option. [TABLE=class: vokabeln400, width: 400] [TR] [TD]Going to parties is fun.[/TD] [TD=width: 50%, bgcolor: #FFFFFF]I enjoy reading.[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=bgcolor: #FFFFFF]Gerund is subject[/TD] [TD=bgcolor: #FFFFFF]Gerund is object[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] I really hope that my explanation will be helpful!!! Good luck!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ali jabir Posted October 18, 2013 Author Share Posted October 18, 2013 Thanks a lot lilybass for your reply. it was very helpful. Best to you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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