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Rephrasing the Sentence 229 Views

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ACT English: Style Drill 2, Problem 3. How would you rephrase the sentence if at all?

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00:03
Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by grandmothers. We all love them, mainly
00:08
because they let us get away with murder.
00:12
How would you rephrase the sentence below, if at all?
00:15
For my birthday a new computer was given to me by my grandmother.
00:24
When at all possible, it's best to avoid the passive voice. "Bill punched John in the face,"

00:30
is better than "John was punched in the face by Bill."
00:35
"Given to me by my grandmother" is a convoluted way to get across the necessary idea, so we'll
00:41
nix choice (A).
00:42
While we're at it, we'll cross out choice (B) as well, since it contains the same passive
00:46
phrasing.
00:47
Neither (C) nor (D) is passive.
00:49
Both sentences are active, because they use "gave" instead of "given." However, (D) excludes
00:54
important information by leaving out the fact that Grandma gave the computer as a birthday
00:59
present.
01:00
Therefore, we can kick (D) to the curb and crown (C) our winner. It's a dog-eat-dog-world,
01:03
and we can't be passive if we want to conquer the ACT.
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Rephrasing the Sentence 229 Views

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