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Hi, Vegnlove,

@vegnlove posted:

(1) The twenty-first century is the age of information and knowledge. It is a century that is characterized by knowledge as the important resource that gains competitive advantage for companies.

source from : Year 2020 June Mock Test for KSAT #22  (full paragraph is in the attachment)

Q. I'm not quite sure what is the meaning for the red highlighted, especially because of 'as the important resource.'

First, because it is in 'It that emphasis' phrase and passive voice, which gives me more confusion, let me change it to normal phrase and active voice..

     --> (2) The century is characterized by knowledge as the important resource that                   gains competitive advantage for companies.

     --> (3) Knowledge characterizes the century as the important resource that gains                   competitive advantage for companies..

====> After change the sentence like (3), it seems it doesn't make sense based on the context.

To me, it should be written like this to make sense in the context;

(4) It is a century that is characterized by knowledge which is regarded as the important resource that gains competitive advantage for companies.

Can you please tell me if (1) sentence is same meaning as (4)? and if so, why 'which is regarded' is omitted?           

(Please note the corrections I highlighted in yellow.)

Sentence (2) above is correct.

Sentence (3) is correct but, in my opinion, more ambiguous than (2), as explained below.

Sentence (4) needs a comma after "knowledge."

"It is a century that..." is not emphatic. "It" refers back to "the 21st century," and "that" introduces a relative:

- The twenty-first century is the age of information and knowledge. It (= the twenty-first century) is a century that (= which) is characterized by knowledge as the important resource that gains competitive advantage for companies.

The verb "characterize" can mean "be characteristic (typical) of" or "define/describe."

The sentence in the passive form is the usual pattern with this verb if the "as"-complement refers to the agent ("knowledge," in this case). In this case, "is characterized by" means "has as a key characteristic." The active voice would make the sentence ambiguous, or more ambiguous than the passive, because the "as"-complement might be incorrectly interpreted as referring to the object "the century."

Let's see these two sentences:

A. Knowledge is characterized by industries as an important resource. (In this case, the important resource is "knowledge," which is the subject of the passive. The active is: Industries characterize knowledge as an important resource.) Here, "characterized" is synonymous with "described" or "defined." We can say:

Industries characterize / describe / define knowledge as an important resource.

B. The 21st century is characterized by knowledge as an important resource. (In this case, the important resource is no longer the subject, but the agent "knowledge.") In this case, "characterized" CANNOT be paraphrased as "described" or "defined," because the meaning of the sentence is that knowledge is an important resource that characterizes the 21st century. This does NOT make sense:

Knowledge describes / defines the 21st century as an important resource.

A possible paraphrase for (B) is:

B1. The 21st century has the important resource of knowledge as its main/one of its main characteristics.

To add to Gustavo's correct answer,  in the Macmillan dictionary, two definitions are listed for "characterize", one is "to describe someone or something as a particular type of person or thing", which does not apply to the sentence under discussion, while the other "to be a typical quality or feature of someone or something" is the one that is applicable to the sentence in question. The verb "characterize" is more idiomatically used in the passive voice, but the insertion of "which is regarded" renders the sentence unidiomatic, rather than ungrammatical.

@f6pafd posted:

To add to Gustavo's correct answer,  in the Macmillan dictionary, two definitions are listed for "characterize", one is "to describe someone or something as a particular type of person or thing", which does not apply to the sentence under discussion, while the other "to be a typical quality or feature of someone or something" is the one that is applicable to the sentence in question. The verb "characterize" is more idiomatically used in the passive voice, but the insertion of "which is regarded" renders the sentence non-idiomatical, rather than ungrammatical.

I agree that the addition of "which is regarded" makes the sentence unnecessarily wordy.

When used in the passive according to the second acceptation above, "be characterized by" can be paraphrased as "have as a typical quality or feature":

Active voice: Knowledge as the important resource that gains competitive advantage for companies characterizes the 21st century = Knowledge as the important resource that gains competitive advantage for companies is a typical quality/feature of the 21st century.

Passive voice: The 21st century is characterized by knowledge as the important resource that gains competitive advantage for companies = The 21st century has knowledge as the important resource that gains competitive advantage for companies as a typical quality/feature / has the typical quality/feature of knowledge as the important resource that gains competitive advantage for companies. (The active form and the paraphrases of the passive are unidiomatic and solely provided for Vegnlove to see how "characterize" is to be understood.)

Thank you so much!!!