I would say the correct answer is girls had laughed a little nervously.
Based on this clause, we can deduce something about their personality, and that is that they are happy kids who want to laugh all the time but they are not allowed to. The other options are either direct characterization or not characterization at all.
Answer:
A gerund is a form of a verb used as a noun, whereas a participle is a form of verb used as an adjective or as a verb in conjunction with an auxiliary verb. An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that modifies a noun. This grammatical construction usually sits next to another noun and modifies it by renaming it or describing it in another way. Appositives are generally offset with commas or dashes.
Examples:
Gerund: Verb: Read; Gerund: Reading; Sentence: Her favorite hobby is reading.
Participle: A participle is an adjective made from a verb. Verb: Sleep; Participle: Sleeping; Phrase: The sleeping dog.
Appositive: Sentence: "The boy raced ahead to the finish line"; Appositive: "The boy, an avid sprinter, raced ahead to the finish line."
For the first two, the difference is really the context of the phrase/sentence. The gerund turns the verb into a noun, turning the <em>action </em>of reading into a <em>thing, </em>or a <em>hobby</em>. A participle phrase takes the <em>action </em>of sleeping and turns it into an adjective, and results in "the sleeping dog."
