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Help the food critic finish her scathing review of "The Rusty Spoon" by choosing the correct verb forms for her article.
The waiters _________________________ plates every five minutes didn't seem to care about the noise.
The soup, _________________________ at absolute zero, was ironically the highlight of the meal.
I believe I was the only patron _________________________ the evening without getting food poisoning!
The waiters dropping plates every five minutes didn't seem to care about the noise.
Use the present participle (-ing) to reduce an active relative clause ("waiters who were dropping plates"). Using the past tense "dropped" here would create a grammatically incorrect run-on sentence.
The soup, served at absolute zero, was ironically the highlight of the meal.
Use the past participle to reduce a passive relative clause ("soup which was served").
I believe I was the only patron to survive the evening without getting food poisoning!
When a noun is modified by phrases like "the first," "the last," or "the only," we use a to-infinitive to reduce the relative clause ("the only patron who survived").