-ing clauses: cause and effect UNIT 9 -ing clauses: cause and effect

It contains two clauses: A main clause: Study this sentence: Computers can communicate with synthesisers, using MIDI. It contains two clauses: A main clause: Computers can communicate with synthesisers and an –ing clause: using MIDI

We can use –ing clauses to: Explain how something happens DVD drives read DVD disks (by) using blue laser light. You can copy music files from a CD to your hard disk (by) using a ripper. Using a ripper, you can copy music files from a CD to your hard disk.

We can also use –ing clauses to: Show the effect of something A WAV file may sample a song 44,000 times a second (cause), creating a huge mass of information (effect). Many computer users download music albums for free (cause), causing copyright problems (effect). Note: We don’t use ‘by’ before the –ing clause when we describe the effect.

To sum up about –ing clauses -ing clauses can show how something happens: You can copy music files in your hard disk (how?)… …(by) using a ripper program. -ing clauses can also show the result of something: Sounds we don’t hear are removed from mp3 files (and what’s the result?)… …producing much smaller files.