Recently Alexander Koryagin wrote in a message to Roy Witt:   
      
    DM>  I wonder what the cats are thinking, when during washing   
      
    DM>  suddenly freeze and a few seconds looking into nothingness?   
      
      
    IS>  And the answer is, obviously: What the pain in the neck is   
                                                ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^   
    IS>  stooping like this!   
      
      
              BTW, Ivan... good use of colloquial metaphor!  I interpret this as   
   a figure of speech which can also be read quite literally, thus making it a   
   "live metaphor" and reminding your audience how it came to be.  After alI   
   these years I still have the notes I hastily scribbled when a certain teacher   
   remarked e.g. that the French say "put that in your pocket & your moustache   
   also" whereas I'd say "put that in your pipe & smoke it".  AFAIC it is amusing   
   in both languages, perhaps because I hear it as a cheerfully irreverent [esp.   
   Brit.] way of saying "think about it".  I understand why folks from Russia   
   enjoy such trivia as much as I do.  I'd say "what a pain", however, in this   
   context.  "What a" is another idiomatic expression which people often use   
   without conscious analysis....  :-)   
      
      
      
    RW>  The best I can figure is that part before the first comma.   
      
      
              It follows the subject + predicate pattern we're accustomed to...   
      
                      I wonder   
                      cats are thinking   
      
   ... but the next clause is incomplete.  The addition of "they", which   
   Alexander suggested, is enough to fix the problem of the missing subject.  Now   
   we have   
      
                      they freeze.   
      
      
   So far, so good.  I see another word missing, though.  (Hang in there,   
   Denis... we're nearly done!)  "Looking" is a participle.  It can't be used as   
   a verb all by itself.  There are various ways in which one might solve this   
   problem, but I think Alexander's idea of using the present tense of "[to]   
   look" would probably be the quickest & easiest for those who are not native   
   speakers of English.  My initial thoughts involved adding a word or two.  On   
   second thoughts, however, I realized other folks might expect me to be able to   
   parse my own examples.  :-))   
      
      
      
   ak>  I believe the correct version is this:   
      
      
              Yes!!!  What you're doing is paraphrasing what somebody else   
   said... i.e. expressing your understanding of what he meant in your own   
   words.  You can thus model correct usage whilst giving him an opening to   
   explain, if necessary, how your perception(s) could use a bit of fine-tuning.   
      
              Give yourself two or three gold stars.  ;-)   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)