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A year after my father told us that story, we gathered one evening to hear him read aloud from Isaiah, a prophecy about Immanuel. He sat on our mustard-colored sofa, a large Bible open in his lap. Mother was next to him. The rest of us were strewn across the shaggy brown carpet.


That doesn't make sense if it is a passive sentence, I mean no one actually strew them, right? Then, what does it mean?

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It means that they were sitting around in random positions (like a handful of objects that have been scattered), as opposed to sitting in a row, for example.

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    right. I got it now. I made it wrong, strewn is past participle acting as an adj. Thank you very much.
    – wtdark
    Mar 26, 2019 at 9:50
  • I think it is a metaphor, because, as @katebunting says, it is like they have been scattered. So I think this is a participle acting as a participle, because it looks like they have been strewn by somebody or something. Mar 26, 2019 at 13:42

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