Passive Answer Number 3

3. A wave and a smile mean one thing, but a wave and a tear can be interpreted to mean something else.

Ans.

A wave and a smile mean one thing, but a wave and a tear can be interpreted to mean something else.


Perhaps the best approach is to leave the sentence as it is in order to preserve the proximal parallel structure between "wave and a smile" and "wave and a tear." If one chooses to write this as an active voice, it would be:

A wave and a smile mean one thing, but people can interpret a wave and a tear to mean something else.

This is not that objectionable, but the "ring" of "wave and a tear" followed shortly thereafter by "a wave and a tear" is lost.