Hello~
I've taken this before so, in bold is the answer.
"In that time, it was important to know where a person's family was from."
Family name has always been important in history. It is still important nowadays, but many might disagree with that.
Hope this helps~~
This is for help, not for someone to do it for you. If your grade depends on it, I think you can write one paper.
<u>Answer:</u>
Gerund phrase in the given sentence is ‘reading about history’.
<u>Explanation:</u>
A gerund are words formed with a “verb” ending with ‘ing’ but they act as nouns. For example: swimming, reading, drinking etc can be used as “gerunds”.
A “gerund phrase” will begin with gerund and include other objects and modifiers. The entire gerund phrase acts as noun in the sentence. For example, in the sentence, “I recommend reading books at home”, gerund phrase is ‘reading books at home’.
In the given sentence, gerund phrase ‘reading about history’, begins with gerund - ‘read’+ ‘ing’. It is acting as direct object here. If you ask a question, what Caroline loves? Answer is ‘reading about history’.