As soon as possible! : ) paraphrase the following text: things that are nonliving never had the characteristics of life, and never will. things that are dead once did have the characteristics of life, but when they die, they lose some of the characteristics. so in science, dead is not the same as nonliving. a rock is nonliving, a fallen tree is dead, and a moose is living.

Paraphrasing is the act of rewording, revising, simplifying and expressing the text in your own words with additional clarity. Note that condensing the text to a shorter form should not be in your interests because that would be summarizing, not paraphrasing. Check this out:

Nonliving organisms and lifeless organisms are not the same thing. Inanimate organisms are not dead, they're nonliving. Being nonliving means not having a characteristic of life, it means that the object is inorganic. A valid example could be a rock. A rock has never had a characteristic of life. Being deceased means that life once inhabited the being and has left it. Just as a moose gains life from conception, it's deemed dead once life has left it. In science, nonliving organisms and lifeless organisms are not the same thing; one was gifted life and one was inanimate from the beginning. 

(Professional enough?) c;