"Beating" is a verb often used to describe playing a beat on a drum. We don't often use the word "hitting" in this context, but people would clearly understand what you mean.

1) I am ashamed of (noun phrase). Example: I am ashamed of my family. Here, "my family" is a noun phrase. I am (ashamed for having) (done something). Example: I am ashamed for having lied to my teacher. I think in this case, it's best to think of "ashamed for having" as a set phrase talking about something you did. 2) "Count on" can mean "expect" or "rely on". Here is means they expect the total number of soldiers will be 300,000. 3) Renovation means "fix up". I don't often use it with a preposition. "His house was renovated" or "his house underwent renovation." Extension means to add an extra room or additional part to the house. It's different from renovate.

"Does it sound odd to say "As was pointed out in the previous/last chapter(which one?), the different kinds of knowledge don't ARISE EITHER OUT OF EXPERIENCE ALONE OR ONLY OUT OF some sort of innate characteristic."? What could I say? Don't you usually say "not either...or"?" Both "last chapter" and "previous chapter" are fine. "Previous" might be slightly less ambiguous because "last" might be the final chapter, though people are very unlikely to be confused by this since the meaning is clear from context. " don't arise from either experience alone or from some single innate characteristic." I think this wording is better. Basically, your version seems a big long/unclear. Many academics are terrible writers (saying this as a PhD student ^^;), so you might see some long, convoluted sentences in English research/texts. However, I suggest you don't follow their example. "The whole of" is formal and better for academic writing. "Are you going to eat the whole of that yolk?" "Whole of" is formal and doesn't usually refer to physical objects like an egg yolk. "The whole (of) the morning was wasted trying to find the documents." Again, "whole of" seems too formal here since I assume this is spoken English. I would say "the whole morning was wasted."