有一读者问： 下面两句中的being是分词还是动名词？ 不用可以吗？
(1)Poverty is not being able to have what most people have. It's not being able to live like most people live.
句中的being是动名词，用作表语。这是从语义上得出的结论。如将is being看作现在进行时，那是讲不通的。如将being省去，把able用作表语，也是讲不通的。这里之所以用being,其原因有二：一是用作表语，与主语有同一性，在此连系动词is等于means;二是用来作动名词，没有它，able 就没有着落了。整个句子意味着：贫困就是不能有多数人之所有，就是不能像多数人那样生活。动名词用作表语的情况并不罕见，再如：
(2)Her job is washing clothes.
(3)Complimenting is lying .
(4)The first step in my education was learning to read.
(5)Shakespeare must have been a very strong man, but he died in 1616 at the age of fifty-two. For such a constitution, we may say that this was dying young.
being用作动名词的情况也不罕见，再如：
(6)Being a teacher is being present at the creation.
(7)Being a printer is a trade; being a lawyer is a profession.
动名词being 的否定结构是not being, 再如：
(8)Not being able to pass his mathematics exam proved an obstacle to his career.
