Can "being" ever be a participle?

[rx_11]

Hi, experts,

In ManhattanGMAT SC 4th page 84, there is a sentense, "The cat, lazy from overeating, took a nap".

Can you clarify if we should add a "being" in front of "lazy"? That is "The cat, being lazy from overeating, took a nap". Is this sentense correct?

Moreover, can we ever use "being" as a participle? For example, "The cat took a nap, being lazy from overeating".

[ChrisB]

Hi,

I think you're advocating using "being" as a gerund with lazy as the object of being as in "being lazy." In this case, we should not add "being" in front of lazy because "lazy from eating" already clearly modifies the cat. Adding "being" does not make this modifying relationship more clear so it's not necessary and thus wordy.

In general the presence of "being" on the GMAT can often tip you off that something is wrong with an answer choice. That is because 'being' appears in 1,000 answer choices, but only 3 of these answer choices are correct. That is because 'being' can often either be omitted for concision's sake or eliminated because a more descriptive verb or noun can be used in its place.

Thanks,
Chris