Tess plants flowers every year, and she noticed that her flowers tend to bloom earlier when the spring weather is warmer. She collected data for the past 666 years on the average March temperature where she lives, and the date in April her first flowers bloomed that year. A line was fit to the data to model the relationship.

answer: do

the 'italicized phrase' is a noun clause that is used as a direct object.

first of all, dante wanted to write an account of the search for spiritual atonement and salvation, and this desire drew heavily from dante's own experiences. dante was living in exile while writing inferno and so, much like his poetic counterpart, he felt like he had lost his way and needed direction.

explanation:

awnser:

one thing blogging and good copywriting share is a conversational style, and that means it’s fine to fracture the occasional rule of proper grammar in order to communicate effectively. both bloggers and copywriters routinely end sentences with prepositions, dangle a modifier in a purely technical sense, or make liberal use of the ellipsis when an em dash is the correct choice-all in order to write in the way people actually speak. but there are other mistakes that can detract from your credibility. while we all hope what we have to say is more important than some silly grammatical error, the truth is some people will not subscribe or link to your blog if you make dumb mistakes when you write, and buying from you will be out of the question.

i have identified the gerund in this sentence by writing it in all capitals.

gerund phrase: writing it in all capitals

gerund use: object of preposition