Answer:
The verbal that functions as a noun in the passage is: portraying
Explanation:
In the statement:
[(Portraying Richard Nixon in the 1987 opera Nixon in China was his breakout role)].
Portraying is a verbal (gerund) that is functioning as the noun to the verb was in this statement.
The subject in this statement is the gerundial phrase:
(Portraying Richard Nixon in the 1987 opera Nixon in China)
The predicate would then be:
(was his breakout role)
Gerunds can also function as:
- adjectives
- direct objects
- objects to prepositions
- complements of the verb BE
- appositives
