Question

Read the sentence.

In most communities, drinking from the tap is perfectly safe.

Which of these correctly identifies the gerund phrase and its function in the sentence?

In most communities/object of the preposition
perfectly safe/direct object
drinking from the tap/subject
the tap is perfectly safe/subject compliment

Answer 1

It is relatively easy to spot a gerund, given that it looks like a verb + ing. Having that in mind, the gerund here is drinking from the tap. This gerund acts as the subject of the sentence, which you can easily determine by asking the question What is perfectly safe?, and the answer will be Drinking from the tap - that's how you know it is the subject.
So, the correct answer is drinking from the tap/subject.