Select the gerund phrase in the sentence below. then determine the noun function of the gerund. her favorite pastime is entertaining friends.

Gerunds are verb forms that end in -ing and function as nouns in a sentence. Here, the gerund is entertaining, but the entire gerund phrase is entertaining friends because a phrase includes words directly connected with the central word (the central word here is entertaining, and the word guests is its object).

When it comes to the noun function of this gerund, the correct answer is noun predicate (or predicate noun, it's all the same). A noun predicate is the first noun found after a linking verb (which connects two parts of a sentence). Here, the linking verb is IS, and the first noun following it is ENTERTAINING, which makes it a noun predicate. 

The answer is c: distinguish. which means tell the difference between two or more things