Passive Answer Number 5

5. The kindly old woman shopping for a baby gift was berated by a strangely sweet-smelling man, an ex-crossdresser with an attitude, who was still learning the ABC's of polite small talk.

Ans.

The kindly old woman shopping for a baby gift was berated by a strangely sweet-smelling man, an ex-crossdresser with an attitude, who was still learning the ABC's of polite small talk.


The passive is warranted here mainly because the long modifying phrase "an ex-crossdresser with an attitude, who was still learning the ABC's of polite small talk" should probbly be placed next to the noun it modifies ("man"), and this modifying phrase as an intervening sequence would be distracting.

However, if the author had wanted to write it in active voice, he/she could have written it in the following manner:

The strangely sweet-smelling man, an ex-crossdresser with an attitude, who was still learning the ABC's of polite small talk berated the kindly old woman shopping for a baby gift.