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ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 3. Where does the semicolon fit best?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?
ACT English Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 3. Where should we place the apostrophe to properly indicate possession?
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?
Transcript
- 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,"
Full Transcript
- 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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