ing and ed in participle clauses

Forums: English, Esl, Grammar, Adjective Cluases
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hi every one
could u possibly lend me a hand in here??
my students are upper intermediate students and they are supposed to fill the blanks with "ing" or "ed" in reduced adjective cluases; one of them turns out to be a nightmare since my colleagues n I can't agree on the answer, here it is:
"Most of the programmes shown on TV are rubbish. last night i saw a reality show about people living on an island. the people chosen to go on the show were supposed to be normal people, but in fact they were all good-looking and ....(try) very hard to become famous.""
ed or ing??
since the verb is active i prefer the ing form... but they say ed form is correct

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They were all good looking and trying hard to become famous - trying is necessary to match the tense of "were good looking".

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@fateme,

I'd say to use 'ed'. The action occurred last night based on this:

Quote:

... last night I saw ...

IMHO, for the sake of parallel construction and consistent voice, I advise keeping it past tense. This phrase also matches..."they were all good-looking" phrases tense, too.

However, I'm no expert. I'm sure you'll hear/read some differing opinions.

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@Ragman,

Hi
I know both are possible, but in this very specific situation, which one is better?
Isn't present participle for active verbs and cases things happen at the same time? While past participle is used for passive verbs?
Look at whole issue from "reduced adjective clause" point of view

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@fateme,

I mentioned my preference. I would observe that your expertise seems greater than mine. Having no other example I could think of, I'm at a loss to advise you well on this.

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@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

I'd say to use 'ed'. The action occurred last night based on this:

Disagree. A series of impressions gained while watching the show.

in fact they were all ...
good-looking and
trying very hard to become famous and
wearing smart clothes and
talking a lot and
running about and
singing badly and
smoking cigars.

If you delete any one the remainder must make sense. You would not write "They were all tried to become famous".

ing and ed in participle clauses

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