Which sentence has an active verb? i wrote an essay about the benefits of exercise. i was given a free pass to the local gym. an exercise video was made by our class. a fitness award was won by my best friend.

A). I wrote an essay about the benefits of exercise.

Explanation:

An active verb is described as the verbs that are directly associated with the action of the subject in the sentence or the 'doer or subject' is performing the particular action.

In the given question, option A i.e. 'I wrote an essay about the benefits of exercise' contains an active verb 'wrote' that is directly performed by the subject 'I' in the sentence. It answers the question 'who wrote' by offering 'I wrote' while the other options fail to do so as they are affected by the action but do not perform it. Therefore, Options B, C, and D are incorrect as they employ passive verbs as the subjects are imposed to go through the action instead of directly performing it. Thus, option A is the correct answer.

the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).