GRAMÁTICA INGLESA II UNLP

UNIT 3
HANDOUT # 8

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PASSIVE VOICE AND STLYE. PRACTICE EXERCISES

I. COORDINATION AND PASSIVE VOICE.

I. a. Identify the problem in the following sentence. How can the structure be improved?

The evidence was taken to the crime lab, a team of biochemists analysed it and used in a criminal trial.
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I. b. Each of the following sentences contains an error involving coordination and active and passive voice.
Edit the statements in any way that renders the sentences acceptable.

a. The crop circles in the English countryside have been photographed, written about, and have been
scientifically analysed,

b. According to historical records, Billy the Kid was hunted, killed in a gunfight and was buried.

c. Anthropologists speculate that the Anasazi might have been attacked by unfriendly tribes, decimated by crop
failures, or drought might have driven them away.

d. After Amelia Earhart’s airplane was lost, naval investigators searched for debris, interviewed residents of
South Pacific islands, but no trace of Earhart and Noonan was found.

e. According to legend, the continent of Atlantis was struck by devastating earthquakes, inundated by floods,
and the oceans swallowed it up.

I.c. Read the following paragraph about the Judge Crater mystery. Correct the errors involving coordination,
active and passive voice.

On the evening of August 6, 1930, Judge Force Crater, a wealthy, successful and good-looking New York lawyer
disappeared without a trace. Earlier in the evening he had been seen with friends at a Manhattan restaurant. At
9:10 pm he left the restaurant, hailed a taxi and was driven away. No one ever saw or was heard from again. It
was ten days before he was even reported missing. On August 16 his wife called his courthouse, his secretary
was asked about his whereabouts and told her that he was probably off on political business. This news
reassured Mrs. Crater somehow, but when he still hadn’t turned up by August 26, a group of his fellow judges
started an investigation. A grand jury was convened, but its members could not come to any conclusion as to
what had happened to judge Crater. They theorized that the judge might have developed amnesia, run away
voluntarily, or a criminal had attacked him. His wife disagreed with the first two theories, holding that he had
been murdered by someone in the Tammany Hall organization, the political machine that controlled New York
City at the time. The mystery remains unsolved to this day. He could have been killed by a Tammany Hall hiree, a
girlfriend could have murdered him, or kidnapped by an organized crime group. He might in fact have suffered
from amnesia, or he might have planned his own disappearance. Reports on his whereabouts continued to
surface during the next sixty years.

II. ACTIVE or PASSIVE?

THE CHOICE OF ACTIVE/PASSIVE VOICE IS ONE OF TOPICALISATION. SINCE THE SUBJECT POSITION OFTEN
COINCIDES WITH THE INFORMTION SEEN AS COMMON GROUND, OR THE POINT OF DEPARTURE OF THE
STATEMENT, WHAT IS CHOSEN TO OCCUPY THE SPEC-T POSITION IS A DEFAULT TOPIC (WHAT THE STATEMENT
WILL BE ABOUT).

II. a. Read the following script for a radio bulletin about a hit-and-run accident. Decide what should be the
subject (active or passive) in each of the utterances. Eliminate the by-adjunct if you consider it unnecessary.

A hit-and-run accident occurred this evening at approximately 8:45pm. The intersection of Fourth and Madison
was being crossed by an eight-year-old boy. A blue Toyota Corolla hit him. Massive injuries were sustained by
the boy. Paramedics took him to Harbour View Medical Centre. People are caring for him in the intensive-care
ward. His condition is critical. Police ask anyone with information about the accident to contact the local Police
Station at 444-6968. People are offering a reward.

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III. PASSIVE VOICE AND REGISTER

IN THE NEWS AND IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE, LONG-DISTANCE PASSIVES ARE WIDELY USED FOR REPORTING THE
IDEAS, BELIEFS, FINIDNGS, AND KNOWLEDGE OF OTHERS. THE PASSIVE THUS CREATES AN IMPARTIAL AND
OBJECTIVE IMPRESSION BY REMOVING THE SPEAKER OR WRITER SOMEWHAT FROM THE IDEA.

Water contains minute solutes which are thought to have important health benefits. (The speaker does not
claim responsibility for this belief).

AN EVEN GREATER DISTANCE BETWEEN WRITER AND IDEA CAN BE CREATED BY MEANS OF A PASSIVE VOICE
USING EXPLETIVE IT.

The Pueblo people are said to be descendants of the Anasazi.

It is said that the Pueblo people are descendants of the Anasazi.

III. a. Read this magazine article. Recast the long-distance passives into expletive passives and vice-versa. Find
the one instance where recasting is not possible.

It used to be thought that people caught colds by sitting in drafts, going out in cold weather, or going
from hot to cold temperatures quickly. But now these ideas are believed to be false. It is now known that colds
are spread only by viruses transmitted from one person to another. Surprisingly, it is not the fact of being near
an infected person that causes another person to catch a cold; it is now understood that transmission of viruses
occurs most frequently when healthy people touch an object that the infected person has recently touched,
such as a doorknob or a telephone, and then touch their own noses or mouths without having washed their
hands well.

Colds are regarded as bothersome, but often unavoidable. Most of the time, the symptoms –a sore
throat, runny nose, sneezing, mild cold, and headache –run their course and disappear within a week, with or
without treatment. Antibiotics are assumed to be of no use whatsoever in combating a cold.

Chicken soup has been found to help relieve the symptoms of a cold by opening up the breathing
passages and relieving congestion. For many years, the power of chicken soup had been considered just an old
wives’ tale, but recent scientific research has been reported in the New England Journal of Medicine showing
that the custom of having chicken soup for a cold actually is effective in relieving the symptoms.

For treatment of a cold, then, it is recommended that a person ease their symptoms by drinking plenty
of fluids, especially hot fluids, and getting extra rest. To alleviate the general discomfort medically, aspirin and
ibuprofen are known to help; to ease the congestion and runny nose, antihistamines and decongestants are
suggested.

As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. That is, the measures to avoid
catching the cold virus are considered more effective than the measures to get rid of it.

IV. ACTIONAL vs. STATAL PASSIVES

CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES:

1) The vase was broken by one of the guests.

2) When I arrived, the vase was (already) broken.

DEVOID OF ANY OF THE ADJUNCTS WHICH CONTEXTUALIZE THE EVENT, THE SENTENCE ‘THE VASE WAS
BROKEN’ CAN HAVE TWO DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS. IN 1) IT IS AN ACTIONAL PASIVE WHICH SIGNALS THAT
A CERTAIN EVENT TOOK PLACE, NAMELY THE BREAKING OF A VASE. IN 2) IT IS A STATAL PASSIVE WHICH
ATTRIBUTES A CERTAIN PROPERTY TO THE VASE, THAT OF BEING IN THE STATE RESULTING FROM THE EVENT
WHEREIN IT WAS BROKEN IN THE ACTIONAL SENSE. AMBIGUITY BETWEEN ACTIONAL AND STATAL PASSIVES IS
OFTEN SOLVED BY THE CO-TEXT, INCLUDING ADJUNTCS OF TIME, PLACE AND BY-PHRASES. FURTHER EXAMPLES
INCLUDE:

They were married (The wedding ceremony took place/ They were husband and wife)

The gate was closed (The closing of the gate took place/ The gate was in a closed state)

STATAL PASSIVES CAN OFTEN BE PARAPHRASED BY CONSTRUCTIONS INVOLVING SMALL CLAUSES AS

COMPLEMENTS OF RAISING PREDICATES:

The door appeared /seemed (to be) closed. / The vase appeared/ seemed (to be) broken.

STATAL PASSIVES ARE FREQUENTLY USED TO STATE FACTS (BE LOCATED IN/BE FOUND IN/ BE MADE UP OF/ BE
DIVIDED INTO/ BE RELATED TO).

Atlantis was located along the edge of the Atlantic Ocean near the Strait of Gibraltar.

Chicken pox is related to herpes zoster.

IV. a. Fill in the blanks with passive forms of the indicated verbs. State the type of passive construction in each
case, in particular ACTIONAL vs. STATAL PASSIVES. Provide other words –such as expletives– where
necessary.

____________________________________________ (yet–find) many answers in relation to the mysterious

“lost colony” which ____________________________________ (establish) by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1585 on the
Outer Banks of what ___________________________________ (now-call) North Carolina.
_____________________________________ (feel) today that the plan for the settlement, which
_________________________________________ (locate) on Roanoke Island,
________________________________ (ill-conceive) form the start. Geographical conditions were not
favourable, and the local tribes were not friendly. In 1590 all of the colonists _____________________________
(find – vanish). Only some refuse ________________________________________ (leave) behind, and the word
Croatoan, the name of a nearby island, _________________________________________ (write) on a tree.
What happened to the colonists? No one knows for sure, but today they
____________________________________ (assume- kill) or ____________________________________ (carry)
away by neighbouring peoples.

Today _______________________________________________ (believe) by some that at least a few of the

colonists _____________________________________ (absorb) into local tribes. In fact, descendants of the
original native inhabitants of the area claim Raleigh’s colonists as their ancestors. If this is true, the people of the
lost colony ___________________________________ (should- not- consider) lost at all, for their genes live on in
those descendants.
FOLLOW-UP. Read the following news bulletin and correct the errors involving passive constructions of any
type.

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program to bring you this news bulletin. A massive series of earthquakes
has been struck the nation, causing extreme damage to most major cities. The earthquakes are said that they
have registered a nine on the Richter scale, though it is considered this information preliminary. The minister of
science has stated that the epicenter of the quakes to be located in the Atlantic Ocean some forty miles west of
the pillars of Hercules. According to unconfirmed reports, vast sections of the coastline are reported underwater
as a consequence of a gigantic tidal wave that hit the coastal areas in the aftermath of the earthquake. The
exact number of casualties of the tidal wave are not known, though it is estimated more than 200,000 to have
drowned. It is believed to have occurred serious flooding in cities farther inland. The president, who had been
vacationing at his mountain retreat, has been returned to the capital. Looting is alleged to be taking place in
most major cities, and martial law it is expected to be declared within hours. It is assumed the president to be
speaking to the nation shortly to announce the details of the imposition of military government. As he was
boarding a plane for the flight to the capital, the president did say: ‘A tragedy has struck our nation. It is hoped
that the citizens of Atlantis will conduct themselves in a calm, gentle and moral manner in our time of need.’ In
the meantime, Atlanteans should be gathered provisions and head for the highest ground that they can find. Stay
tuned for further bulletins.