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Gerund or Participle

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by vikram4689 » Wed Jul 04, 2012 4:11 am
Sulfur dioxide, a major contributor to acid rain, is an especially serious pollutant because it diminishes the respiratory system's ability to deal with all other pollutants.
A. an especially serious pollutant because it diminishes the respiratory system's ability to deal
B. an especially serious pollutant because of diminishing the respiratory system's capability of dealing
C. an especially serious pollutant because it diminishes the capability of the respiratory system in dealing
D. a specially serious pollutant because it diminishes the capability of the respiratory system to deal
E. a specially serious pollutant because of diminishing the respiratory system's ability to deal

I know OA:A, my question is related to option E, how to identify whether "diminishing" is GERUND or PARTICIPLE. THis is issue checked in many GMAT problems, please help
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by Kasia@EconomistGMAT » Wed Jul 04, 2012 7:45 am
Gerunds are the nominal forms (noun forms) of verbs, that is, verb forms in -ing used as nouns.
Present (and past) participles are adjectival forms of verbs. The present participles are verb forms in -ing used as adjectives.

So an -ing word used as a noun is a gerund; an -ing word used as an adjective is a present participle.

e.g. a washing machine - "washing" is a participle
a machine for washing - "washing" is used as a noun so it is a gerund.

In answer E the word "diminishing" is used as a noun and thus it is a GERUND.
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by vikram4689 » Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:16 am
Kasia,
can you please your thought process and what is the function of 'rising' here rising costs of data-processing operations at many financial institutions has/have created a growing opportunity for independent companies
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by Bill@VeritasPrep » Wed Jul 04, 2012 9:42 am
vikram4689 wrote:Kasia,
can you please your thought process and what is the function of 'rising' here rising costs of data-processing operations at many financial institutions has/have created a growing opportunity for independent companies
"Rising" is a participle; it describes "costs."
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