Paraphrasing in English
Paraphrasing with voice changes
A very simple way of changing the original sentence is to change it from active to passive or the other way round. Turning an active voice into a passive voice goes like this:
1 Take the direct object and make it your new subject.
2 Take the tense from the orignal verb and find the right form of the verb 'to be'.
3 Take the past participle of the original verb and add it. Add also the rest of the sentence. Sometimes the original subject is not necessary anymore.
Fish build complex nests, form monogamous relationships, hunt cooperatively with other species, and use tools. [1]
1 Complex nests (The original object becomes the new subject.)
2 are (The present simple form of 'to be'.)
3 built by fish (The past participle of 'to build').
Knut, the first polar bear born to the Berlin zoo in thirty years, [...] was rejected by his mother. [2]
1 His mother (The 'by-agent' turns into the subject.)
2 rejected (I delete 'to be' and change the past participle into a finite verb form.)
3 Knut, the first polar ... (The original subject becomes the new object.).
So now we can apply these rules to our paraphrase.
Jonathan Safran Foer (Foer 2009, 149) claims that the fact that people usually eat together with others increases the complexity of our choices of food. A great influence is exerted on our choice of food by dinner companionship.
Unfortunately, that is not all. Some verbs, such as give, take a direct and an indirect object. So we have two versions of the voice change.
The university offered her the opportunity to write a dissertation.
Passive with indirect object: She was given the opportunity ...
Passive with direct object: The opportunity was given to her by the university.
Many reporting verbs from the academic context, such as demonstrate, describe, introduce, suggest and many others, can not take an direct object after an indirect object. That means there is also only one version of the passive.
Prof. Smith demonstrated the chemical reaction to us.
The chemical reaction was demonstrated to us.
Change the voice of the following sentences