Topic: Gerunds & Participles,

Best Answer Explained in Below-:

In the sentence "There is no credit in earning money illegally," the phrase "earning money" contains the underlined word "earning," which is the focus of the question. The term "earning" is classified as a gerund because it is formed from a verb (to earn) and is used as a noun in this context.

Gerunds are created by adding "-ing" to the base form of a verb and can function as nouns in a sentence. In this case, "earning money" is the subject of the prepositional phrase "in earning money illegally," indicating the activity in which no credit is given.

This distinguishes gerunds from other verb forms:

- A past participle (option A) often indicates a completed action (e.g., "earned"), which is not applicable here.
- An infinitive (option C) is the base form of a verb prefixed by "to" (e.g., "to earn"), also not seen in the example.
- Present continuous (option D) describes ongoing actions (e.g., "is earning") rather than a nominal activity.

Therefore, since "earning" functions as a noun representing an activity, it is correctly identified as a gerund (option B).