Your employer is required "to deduct" a certain amount from your salary as a withstanding tax payable to the federal government . 'Hamlet' is required "reading"(=must be read) for this course. Hi again and thank you all so much for your best reply. Would you kindly tell me the reason why after 'required' is written at once to+verb and at the second one a gerund(v+ing)?
"Reading" in this case is not a gerund but a noun. Verbs ending in "t" or "te" are made into nouns by adding "tion" to the end of the word. (Plus a lot of other verbs. See list here: http://www.morewords.com/ends-with/tion/ ) So, in the case of the employer, the equivalent sentence is "Your employer is required to make a deduction" or "X is a required deduction" So, with deduction we have: verb- to deduct gerund- deducting noun- a deduction and with reading we have: verb- to read gerund- reading noun- a reading You could say "Hamlet is a required reading" which would make the structure plainer, but "a" is generally left out. I don't know why you can leave out the indefinite article "a", but you can.
In the first sentence, it is the deduction that is required. Your employer must perform it. In the second sentence it is the play "Hamlet" that is required. You must read it.
