Question

Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word-
Excuse me. Would you mind ______? It makes it impossible for me to enjoy my meal.
a) My smoking
b) To have smoked
c) Not smoking
d) Not to smoke

Answer 1

Hint: Read the given sentence carefully. Try to find out the subject, predicate, and object of the sentence. Try to make out the meaning of the given sentence as well.

Complete answer:
Gerunds are words that are formed with verbs but act as nouns. Gerunds also at times are seen to end in 'ing'. In this particular sentence, the word in the blank acts as a noun, thus becoming the subject of the sentence and also like a verb by taking up the object. This means that in the blank, we would need a gerund. In this case, since the sentence is in a question form, so a negative word is required.
Now, let us examine all the given options to find out the correct answer -
Option ‘a' is My smoking: Smoking is a gerund as it behaves as a noun in the sentence. It cannot be the correct answer, so we will eliminate this option.
Option ‘b' is To have smoked: Smoked is in the past tense, which doesn’t align with the given sentence. So, we will eliminate this option as well.
Option ‘c' is Not smoking: It is also a gerund, it is the correct option as a negative word is present in this. It is the correct answer.
Option ‘d' is Not to smoke: Smoke is in the present tense. It is the wrong option. So, we will eliminate this option. Hence, option ‘c’ is the correct option.

Note:
All the other options are plausible distractions. You must check the tense of the tense sentence so that it aligns with the given options.