Rewriting a complex sentence as two simple sentences?

Question

Rewrite this complex sentence as two simple sentences.

While chasing a moth, the cat knocked down a plant.

My answer: The cat was chasing a moth. It knocked down a plant.

But I don't know if this is right, because it doesn't specify that the plant was knocked down while the cat was chasing the moth. Help please?

Answer 1

This depends on your purpose.   Your answer is fine, but, as you note, omits the information about the time relationship between the clauses.

You might try,

    "The cat was chasing a moth. Then it knocked down a plant."

This is fine, because it can be interpreted exactly as you expect, but it can also be misread as saying that the cat abandoned chasing the moth so that it could mess with the plant. There isn't a really good answer to this, because it isn't possible to keep the exact same time relationship in without creating another complicated sentence:

     "The cat was chasing a moth. While it was doing this, it knocked down a plant."

   The following pair of sentences are still technically simple sentences.  I've added a time specifier in an adverbial phrase to the second sentence, but since it is not a clause, the sentence is still technically simple.

     "The cat was chasing a moth. While doing this, it knocked down a plant."

I hope that helps.

Mark,

Writing professor,

Answer 2

ya that looks right to me ^ ^

Answer 3

Your 2 sentences are fine!

Answer 4

Wow.  The sentence you're being asked to rewrite isn't complex.  "While chasing a moth" isn't a subordinate clause.  Bonus points to you if you figure out how to explain what it is to your teacher.

As a proper complex sentence, it would read:

While it was chasing a moth, the cat knocked down a plant.

Now, both clauses have subjects, "it" in the relative and "cat" in the independent.

Part of the lesson that you're being taught is about how complex sentences are useful.  It's very difficult to establish the relationship between chasing the moth and knocking down the plant without using some sort of complex sentence.  Prepositional phrases can do the job, but often a relative clause or subordinate clause can do the job in a much better way.

Your answer is correct, in that it does use two separate simple sentences.

Another possibility would be:

The cat was chasing a moth.  It knocked down a plant at the same time.

In that example, "at the same time" is just a prepositional phrase.  There's no way to mistake it for a clause.  The grammar of each sentence stands on its own, although the meaning of the second sentence depends on the first.