The teacher asks a student, "How are you feeling about tomorrow?" The teacher has been preparing the student for tomorrow's exam for the whole year.
The student replies, "I'm scared of failing."
The student has a Yorkshire (North English) accent and it isn't, for some people, 100% clear that she says 'failing' but from the context it is much more likely that she says 'failing' and not 'failure'.
It seems to me that if the student had said "failure" it would have represented something more global, while "failing" refers just to tomorrow's test. Is this impression correct?
Side question: Is this an example of ellipsis? "I'm scared of failing [the test]"