The student's text is not considered plagiarized, but it does closely paraphrase the source material. While the student has rewritten the original content using slightly different wording, the core idea and structure of the sentence remain similar to that of Jared Diamond’s original text.
Plagiarism typically involves either copying someone else's work without attribution or failing to sufficiently transform original ideas. In this case, the student has not provided any attribution to Diamond or the source work, which is a critical component of academic integrity. To avoid plagiarism, the student should properly cite Diamond’s work and can also choose to express the idea in a more original way rather than mirroring the structure and key phrases of the source text.
In summary, while the student has avoided direct copying, they should have included a citation and could further transform the language to strengthen the originality of their response.