Thinking activity 11.4 thinking critically

What is this supposed to be?

I do not see anything.

the present continuous is a verb tense which is mainly used to indicates that an action is in progress at the moment of speaking.  

it is formed using: person + verb to be (am/is/are) +verb + - ing form  

example: i am studying at this moment .

in addition, the present continuous is also used in order to express things that will or will not happen in the near future.

example: i am having dinner with some friends tonight.

the speaker sometimes   uses it   to express that an action is repeated and it causes irritation on the part of the speaker

example: my sister is constantly complaining about everything.

answer: the correct answer is that he still ridicules people that look different.

explanation: in "the nose"   by nikolai gogol, the author sets up a satirical view of russian society. the book is divided into three parts and tells the story of collegiate assessor ('major') kovalyov, who gets up one morning without his nose. he later finds out that his nose has developed a life by itself, and has apparently surpassed him by attaining the rank of state councillor. the short story showcases the obsession with social rank that plagued russia after peter the great introduced the table of ranks. by allowing commoners to attain hereditary nobility through service to the state, a large population was given the chance to move up in social status. this opportunity, however, also gave way to large bureaucracies, in which many of gogol's characters worked.