A woman received a $1000 prize for winning a short-story writing contest. Her acceptance speech appears below. Fill in the appropriate gerund or infinitive. In some cases, more than one answer may be correct.
It is a great honor (award) to be awarded this generous prize tonight.
(1) ______________ (present) an award for something that I enjoy doing anyway thrills me. (2) _______________________ (say) that I am indebted to my parents would be an understatement. (3) __________________ (have) parents who were trained as teachers gave me an important start. From the time I was very young, (4) _______________ (study) four hours every day after school was required. It was a frequent sight (5) _________________ (see) my siblings discussing main points and rehearsing the answers to problems. (6) _____________________ (scold) by our parents for not paying enough attention to our work would have been the greatest shame.
Besides doing my homework for school, _________________ (7) (read) fiction and nonfiction books took up much of my leisure time. (8) _______________ (read) so many types of books by the time I got to college proved to be a marvelous advantage. (9) ________________ (see) so many good written models allowed me to creatively and effortlessly produce my own work for my university English classes. Today, it requires more discipline for me (10) _______________ (be) a good writer. (11) _______________ (marry) with three children leaves less time to write. It requires initiative (12) ________________ (arise) every day at 5:00 A.M. to write. (13) _____________ (write) in this manner is the only way that I have been able to produce several short stories and a few poems. (14) ______________ (not receive) very good marks on my essay pieces in college, I have left essay writing to some other writer! Well, I can see that my time is up. It has been an honor (15) ______________ (select) as the winner of this contest and I thank my parents, family, and all of you for your recognition today.
Answers
A woman received a $1000 prize for winning a short-story writing contest. Her acceptance speech appears below. Fill in the appropriate gerund or infinitive. In some cases, more than one answer may be correct.
It is a great honor (award) to be awarded this generous prize tonight.
(1) ______________ (present) an award for something that I enjoy doing anyway thrills me. (2) _______________________ (say) that I am indebted to my parents would be an understatement. (3) __________________ (have) parents who were trained as teachers gave me an important start. From the time I was very young, (4) _______________ (study) four hours every day after school was required. It was a frequent sight (5) _________________ (see) my siblings discussing main points and rehearsing the answers to problems. (6) _____________________ (scold) by our parents for not paying enough attention to our work would have been the greatest shame.