Crescent Girls’ School

Secondary Three English Language

Summary Practice 1

Name: __________________ ( ) Date: __________

Class: _________

Methods of Paraphrasing

1. Find Synonyms For Key Words

 Ensure that the synonym has the exact same meaning as the original
when used in the original sentence. (Absolute synonyms may not always
be appropriate)
 Difficult words need not be changed
 E.g. “It can be difficult to choose a suitable place to study for my exams.”
 "It is sometimes hard to select an appropriate place to do my
revision."

2. Combine Sentences
 Use new connecting words and insert clauses to combine shorter
phrases and sentences.
 E.g. “Paraphrasing is a skill students need to learn.  It is an important
part of academic writing.”  “Paraphrasing, which is a skill students
need to learn, is an important part of academic writing.”

3. Change The Sentence Structure

 Move parts of a sentence to change the sentence structure or move the
clauses around
 E.g. “Yesterday, I stayed in the library until midnight and finished my
homework.”  “I finished my homework at midnight in the library
yesterday.”

4. Changing Of Voice
 Make active sentences passive and passive ones, active.
 E.g. “The voucher was sent by the mobile phone retailer on August 3rd.”
 “The mobile phone retailer sent the voucher on August 3rd.”

5. Change Parts Of Speech

 Change nouns into verbs, verbs into nouns
 E.g. “The teacher helped the student finish her class registration form.”
 “The teacher helped the student register for classes.”

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The article below is about genetically engineered food.

1 In the brave new world of genetic engineering, Dean DellaPenna, a plant

biochemist at Michigan State University, envisions this seemingly impossible
cornucopia likened to fantasies: tomatoes and broccoli bursting with cancer-fighting
chemicals and vitamin-enhanced crops of rice, sweet potatoes, and cassava to help
nourish the poor. He imagines wheat, soy, and peanuts free of allergens, bananas
that deliver vaccines, and vegetable oils so loaded with therapeutic ingredients that
doctors can even prescribe them to patients at risk of cancer and heart disease. He
believes that genetically engineered foods are the key to the next wave of
advances in agriculture and health.

2 While DellaPenna and many others see great potential in the products of this new
biotechnology, some see uncertainty and even danger. Critics fear that genetically
engineered products are being rushed to the market before their effects are fully
understood. Anxiety was once fuelled by reports of taco shells contaminated with
genetically engineered corn not approved for human consumption. Additionally,
sceptical environmentalists cautioned that weeds may mutate into unstoppable
‘super-weeds’ and pests may evolve rapidly to be impervious to pesticides because
of the transgenes introduced into the environment. But DellaPenna claims the
apprehension was uncalled for. "When it comes to addressing concerns about such
issues, the industry is being held to very high standards," he stated, "and it's doing
its best to meet them in reasonable and rigorous fashion."

3 In the mid-1990s, a project was launched to insert a Brazilian nut gene into
soybean with the aim of creating more nutritious soybeans. Because the nut is
known to contain an allergen, the product was tested for adverse human reaction
and the results forced the abandonment of the project. For some people this was
good evidence that the system for testing genetically engineered foods works but
for others, it was a portent of calamitous beginnings. It raised the spectre of
allergens or other hazards slipping through the safety net; a fabricated protein with
allergenic properties might go undetected in future engineered food. Furthermore,
critics warn that the technique of moving genes across dramatically different
species increases the likelihood of something going awry, raising the possibility of
unanticipated ill-health effects. Such unnatural disturbances might even produce
new allergens, carcinogens or toxins that can be present in foods certified fit for
consumption as procedures to assess the safety of these ‘Frankenfood’ are not
designed to detect them.

4 However, genetic modification of food is not novel. Humans have been altering the
genetic makeup of plants for millennia, breeding and crossbreeding them to grow
better tasting, larger crops. The giant, juicy tomato often seen at breakfast was the
size of a marble eons ago. From the weedy plant Teosinte with an ear barely an
inch long came foot-long ears of sweet white and yellow corn. In just the past few
decades, genetic engineers have modified even more crops to produce varieties
with higher yields in a bid to address world hunger. They have also created
hundreds of new crop variants resistant to diseases using irradiation and mutagenic
chemicals. In fact, most people in the United States do not realize that they have
been eating genetically engineered food since the beginning of the 20th century.
Ever since engineered food was deemed safe, more than 60 percent of all
processed foods on the U.S. supermarket shelves – including pizzas, chips,
cookies, ice creams, and baking powders – contain ingredients from engineered
food crops.

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 5 The ever present debate of whether genetically modified foods will deliver their
promise of bettering the lives of all remains to be seen. Their potential is definitely
enormous, yet they carry very real risks – and society may pay for accidents or
errors in judgment in ways that cannot yet be imagined. However, the biggest
mistake of all would be to blindly reject or endorse this new technology. If analysed
carefully how, where, and why genetically altered products was introduced, and if
they are tested thoroughly and judged wisely, it is possible to weigh their risks
against their benefits to those who need them most.

Adapted from Food: How Altered? by Jennifer Ackerman, National Geographic, May
2002

Using your own words as far as possible, summarise the benefits and concerns
pertaining to genetically engineered food. (15m)

Use only information from paragraphs 2 to 4.

Your summary must be in continuous writing (not note form). It must not be longer than 80
words (not counting the words given to help you begin).

Critics of genetically engineered foods are concerned that …

a. Identify the points and note them down in the first row
b. Paraphrase the points in the second row

1. Critics fear that genetically engineered products are being rushed to the market before their
effects are fully understood

genetically modified foods are being hastily sold without fully comprehending their
effects.

2. Additionally, sceptical environmentalists cautioned that weeds may mutate into unstoppable
‘super-weeds’ and pests may evolve rapidly to be impervious to pesticides because of the
transgenes introduced into the environment.

3. Furthermore, critics warn that the technique of moving genes across dramatically different
species increases the likelihood of something going awry, raising the possibility of
unanticipated ill-health effects.

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4. It raised the spectre of allergens or other hazards slipping through the safety net; a
fabricated protein with allergenic properties might go undetected in future engineered food

5. genetic engineers have modified even more crops to produce varieties with higher yields in
a bid to address world hunger

6. They have also created hundreds of new crop variants resistant to diseases using
irradiation and mutagenic chemicals.

7. Such unnatural disturbances might even produce new allergens, carcinogens or toxins that
can be present in foods certified fit for consumption as procedures to assess the safety of
these ‘Frankenfood’ are not designed to detect them.

8. Ever since engineered food was deemed safe, more than 60 percent of all processed foods
on the U.S. supermarket shelves

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9. For some people this was good evidence that the system for testing genetically engineered
foods works

10.