re = /(<section[a-z="'\s]+>([\s\S]*?)<\/section>)/mi
str = '<chapter id="chap1">
<para0><title></title></para0>
</chapter>
<chapter id="chap2"> <title>THEORY</title>
<section id="Thoery">
<title>theory Section</title>
<para0 verstatus="ver">
<title>Theory Para 0 </title>
<text>blah blah</text>
</para0>
</section>
<section id="Next section">
<title>title</title>
<para0>
<title>Title</title>
<text>blah blah</text>
</para0>
</section>
<section id="More sections">
<title>title</title>
<para0>
<title>Title</title>
<text>blah blah</text>
</para0>
</section>
<section id="section">
<title>title</title>
<para0>
<title>Title</title>
<text>blah blah</text>
</para0>
</section>'
subst = '$1'
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html