-ing stuff

Are these sentences acceptable to you?

John, living with Mary, has become boring.

John, living with Mary, became boring.

The good ship Venus, sitting in the dock for years, has now been renovated.

The good ship Venus, sitting in the dock for years, was renovated.

The snow, falling overnight, has become hard.

The snow, falling overnight, became hard.

First of all, consider changing the word “boring” to “bored”.

Consider moving the participial phrase “living with Mary”, “sitting in the dock for years” & “falling overnight” to the front of its respective sentence.

No, John is certainly become quite a boring person. ;-(

Well, the issue of "bored" versus "boring" just depends on what you're trying to express. Either John became a dull and boring person, or he grew bored with his situation.

Aside from that, I'd say that all of those sentences are acceptable (in other words, there's nothing incorrect about them); but they sound very formal and literary. They're not sentences that I would use in conversation, and I think they may sound a bit stilted even for formal writing. I'd prefer to replace the participial phrases with verbal clauses.

The way I interpret the intent of the first pair is that John grows (or grew) “bored” (NOT “boring”) with his situation, i.e., he is bored with Mary after living with her for x # of years. I don’t believe the intent is that John, who lives with Mary, is a “boring person”.

This interpretation is more consistent with what the 3rd pair tries to convey.