Practise & distinguish gerunds:

Please underline all gerunds red, all participles green and all infinitives blue.

For some reasons X-ing Gerund has been having great difficulty in getting to sleep lately. Last night he thought it might help if he went to bed even earlier than usual, so at 9.30 he lay down, closed his eyes hopefully, and began counting sheep. Thinking of all those energetic little animals jumping over fences made him feel energetic himself, so he stopped counting, went downstairs and found the most boring book he had. It was a book called 'Home Rug-Making'. At the end of an hour he had become quite interested in making rugs. He put the book down in desperation. Then he remembered someone telling him once that if he repeated "Sleep" often enough, it would finally come. 15 minutes later the people in the bedroom above him tapped angrily on the floor.
At 2 o'clock he took a sleeping-tablet. It had absolutely no effect.
At 3 he got up and walked around his room at least 20 times. At 4 he did a deep-breathing exercise. At 5 he stared at a spot on the ceiling until his eyes began to hurt.
At 6 his eyes began to feel heavy and, finally, he dropped off. His alarm-clock rang at 7. This morning at work his boss looked at him gravely, shook his head, and said in a critical tone of voice: "See here, Gerund, you have been looking very tired lately! Obviously, you haven't been getting enough sleep. I really think you ought to try going to bed earlier!"

(adopted and slightly changed from: R.O'Neill: English in Situations, London ⁴1973, Oxford University Press, p.176)

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Gerund: a survey go on to
Gerund: Fill in the gaps