Passive of "tried to eat"
OK, so I'm trying to complete the following analogy:
John ate the worms.
is to
The worms were eaten.
as
John tried to eat the worms.
is to
The worms were tried to be eaten.
or
The worms were eaten attemptively.
... ? I feel like such an inarticulate fool sometimes.
Edit: I'm not asking which of the two possibilities is better, but how I might complete the analogy, preferably with "the worms" as the subject. This is so that I can write something like
The worms were stolen, taken to John's house, and [tried to be eaten].
Sorry if my question wasn't clear.
John ate the worms.
becomes:
The worms were eaten.
Because "the worms" is the object of the first sentence. "The worms" becomes the subject of the new passive-voice sentence.
John tried to eat the worms.
Here "the worms" are not the object of the sentence, so they can't become the subject in a straightforward transformation to passive voice. The object is the phrase "to eat the worms". Notice that you can easily form a (slightly odd) passive voice sentence with this whole phrase as the new subject:
To eat the worms was tried.
This is the source of the difficulty you're having. The sentence you're trying to complete:
The worms were stolen, taken to John's house, and [tried to be eaten].
already has "the worms" as a subject, which doesn't fit. So you'll need to reword it. For a minimal-change reword as a grammar exercise, maybe:
The worms were stolen, taken to John's house, and eating them was tried.
Both of those choices are bad, but if given only them as choices for completing the analogy, choose the second, because although it is clumsy, it is correct, in grammar if not quite in sense. The grammar of the other choice is in error.
However, phrasing like "An attempt was made to eat the worms" should be used if the question is open-ended.
Edit: Regarding the added question about how to (1) complete the analogy, with (2) worms as subject, to support writing "The worms were stolen, taken to John's house, and [tried to be eaten]": Aims 1 and 2 are at odds, as explained clearly and well in answers by Ben and by C Stewart, and noted in other answers and comments. That is, the analogy cannot be completed while meeting all your criteria.
Nevertheless, for your sentence consider "The worms were stolen, taken to John's house, and were the object of an attempt to eat them".
How about:
The worms were stolen, taken to John's house, and an attempt to eat them was made