A gerund phrase used as the object of a preposition is indicated in which of the following examples?

In the context of this question, a gerund phrase as the object of a preposition is best illustrated by the example "The teacher talked about learning." In this case, "talked about" is a verb phrase where "about" functions as a preposition. The phrase "learning" is a gerund, which is a verb form that ends in -ing and functions as a noun. Here, "learning" acts as the object of the preposition "about," making the entire phrase "about learning" serve as the object of the verb "talked."

The other examples do not contain a gerund phrase serving as an object of a preposition. For example, "The kids are playing" is a simple sentence with "playing" as the main verb, "The dog chased the squirrel" also uses "chased" as the main verb with a direct object, and "The flowers bloomed in spring" describes an action without a gerund phrase. Therefore, the option that correctly demonstrates a gerund phrase used as the object of a preposition is "The teacher talked about learning."