P2-F WEEK 11

Main Fall 2022

Course

THE PASSIVE ( to be + V3 )

Subject Verb Object

Active They serve dinner at 6.00.

Passive Dinner is served at 6.00.

Active Passive

Present Simple She cleans the house. The house is cleaned.

Present Continuous She is cleaning the house. The house is being cleaned.

Past Simple She cleaned the house. The house was cleaned.

Past Continuous She was cleaning the house. The house was being cleaned.

Present Perfect Simple She has cleaned the house. The house has been cleaned.

Future She will clean the house. The house will be cleaned.

She is going to clean the house. The house is going to be cleaned.

Modals

The Passive Form : modal + be + V3

Active: You have to return this book to the library before Friday.
Passive: This book has to be returned to the library before Friday.

Active: You don’t have to install the updates manually. The computers do it automatically.
Passive: The updates don’t have to be installed manually. The computers do it automatically.

Active: People should teach children to respect their elders.

Passive: Children should be taught to respect their elders.

Active: He can fix your fridge in a very short time.

Passive: Your fridge can be fixed in a very short time.

Active: People used to grow tobacco in my village.

Passive: Tobacco used to be grown in my village.

Active: The team may complete the project by noon.

Passive: The project may be completed by noon.

Active: You might use a multimedia software like Photoshop for your presentation.

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Passive: A multimedia software like Photoshop might be used for your presentation.

Positive/Negative Statements, Questions & Short Answers

(+) The car was made in Japan.

(-) The car wasn’t made in Japan.
(?) Was the car made in Japan? - Yes, it was. - No, it wasn’t.
(?) Where was the car made? - It was made in Japan.

(+) The plants in the front yard are watered twice a week.
(-) The plants in the front yard aren’t watered twice a week.
(?) Are the plants in the front yard watered twice a week? - Yes, they are. - No, they aren’t.
(?) How often are they watered? - They are watered twice a week.

► When we want to find out who or what did something, then the passive question form is as follows:

Who ... by? / What … by?

- Who was the modern steam engine invented by? - It was invented by James Watt.
- What was the accident caused by? - It was caused by the storm.

► Passive sentences move the focus from the subject to the object of active sentences.
- Shakespeare wrote Hamlet in 1600.
- Hamlet was written in 1600.

► We use by + agent to say who or what did the action.

- Hamlet was written by Shakespeare.
- The telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell.

►We include the agent in the passive ONLY IF it adds information. We do NOT mention the agent when:

a) the agent is unknown, unimportant, or obvious.

- Jim’s car was damaged in the car park. (The agent is unknown.)
- The mail has been delivered. (The agent is obvious.)
b) the agent is words like people, one, someone / somebody, they, he, etc.
- Cell phones are used all over the world. (“by people” is unnecessary.)

► Some verbs, such as buy, give, lend, offer, pay, promise, send, serve, show and tell, can be followed by two
objects. In that case, two passive structures are possible.

- They will offer Ann a job. ► - Ann will be offered a job.

- They will offer a job to Ann. ► - A job will be offered to Ann.

- They gave Mary some flowers. ► - Mary was given some flowers.

- They gave some flowers to Mary. ► - Some flowers were given to Mary.

- The teacher is reading the students a story. ► - The students are being read a story.

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- The teacher is reading a story to the students. ► - A story is being read to the students.

Exercise 1. Rewrite the sentences in the passive.

1. Around 1.4 billion people around the world watch the Premier League every week.

2. An American student designed the Nike logo in 1971.

3. NASA will send humans to Mars in the early 2030s.

4. NASA should train astronauts in zero gravity.

5. NASA also has to test equipment in conditions similar to space.

6. Jeff Besoz founded the online store, Amazon.com, in his garage in 1994.

Exercise 2. Change the following sentences to the passive in two ways.

1. They served the guests dinner.

2. Someone will send you an invitation.

3. They have shown us some photos.

4. They are giving the winners flowers.

5. Someone is going to tell the students the answers.

Exercise 3. Rewrite the questions in the passive.

1. Is Apple producing a new computer?

2. Were all computer companies producing iPods last year?

3. Did Gustave Eiffel design the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty?

4. Do they teach Japanese at ITU?

5. How many t-shirts have you sold today?

6. When will they question the suspects?

Exercise 4. Complete the sentences with the correct ACTIVE or PASSIVE forms of the verbs in brackets.

1. The first mobile phone call ____________ (make) on April 3,1973, by Martin Cooper, an
American engineer, while he was walking along a street in New York City.

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2. Martin’s phone ____________ (be) like a brick. It ____________ (be) over 20 cm long and __________ (weigh)
1.3 kilograms. The battery ____________ (last) only thirty-six minutes.

3. Today, more than 7 billion people ____________ (own) mobile phones worldwide. It is predicted that the UK
population _____________ (reach) 68.3 million in 2025, and smartphones
_____________ (use) by roughly 65 million people in the UK.

4. The first text message ____________ (send) in 1989. Last year, 6.1 trillion texts ____________ (send) worldwide.
5. Camera phones ____________ (sell) since 2002.
6. Smartphones ____________ (introduce) in 2007. Later, a multitude of amazing features _________ also
_________ (add) to smartphones, including Internet browsing, email, MP3 players, video, and camera.

7. In 2008, Apple’s iPhone ____________ (have) 500 applications (apps). Now there ____________ (be) over 3.5
million apps on Apple’s App Store.

8. The most expensive mobile ____________ (be) the Falcon Supernova iPhone 6 Pink Diamond. It
____________ (manufactured) by the US luxury brand Falcon. This phone ____________ (have) a pink diamond
on the back, and it ____________ (sell) for $48.5 Million in the US market today.

9. Around 100 million mobile phones ____________ (throw) away every year.

10. Some people believe that all landline telephones ____________ (replace) by mobile phones in the near future.

Exercise 5. Complete the sentences with the correct ACTIVE or PASSIVE forms of the verbs in brackets.

The Moon 1__________ (appear) over four billion years ago in a big collision. Its dry surface 2__________ (cover)
by sand and rocks. During the day, it 3____________ (warm) up to 117°C by the sun, and at night the temperature
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____________ (fall) to -169°C. In the 1950s and 1960s, many spaceships 5____________ (send) to the Moon. The
first photographs of the far side of the Moon 6____________ (take) in 1959. The first successful Moon landing
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____________ (perform) in 1966 by the Soviet robot spaceship, Luna 2. Since then, moon rocks 8____________
(examine) by scientists from all over the world, but no life 9____________ (find).

Exercise 6. Complete the sentences with the correct ACTIVE or PASSIVE forms of the verbs in brackets.

Take a look around the room. How many people are wearing Nike? Millions of items of
Nike sportswear 1____________ (sell) every year, and the company is now one of the
biggest sportswear manufacturers in the world. The company 2____________ (name)
after the Greek goddess of victory, and 3____________ (make) its first shoes back in the
1970s. Nowadays, Nike 4____________ (know) for its clever advertising campaigns,
which use the world’s best-known athletes. In the 1980s and 1990s, basketball legend
Michael Jordan 5____________ (make) a series of adverts for the company, and in 1997,
golf star Tiger Woods 6____________ (pay) $40 million to star in another series of
adverts. A sign of the company’s fame is that the word “Nike” 7____________
(not/appear) on the company’s products. The famous Nike logo 8____________ (recognise) all over the world. It
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____________ (create) by a designer who received just $35 for the idea!

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ANSWER KEY

Exercise 1.
1. The Premier League is watched by around 1.4 billion people around the world every week.
2. The Nike logo was designed by an American student in 1971.
3. Humans will be sent to Mars in the early 2030s.
4. Astronauts should be trained in zero gravity. (by NASA)
5. Equipment has to be also tested in conditions similar to space. (by NASA)
6. The online store, Amazon.com, was founded by Jeff Besoz in his garage in 1994.

Exercise 2.
1. The guests were served dinner. Dinner was served to the guests.
2. You will be sent an invitation. An invitation will be sent to you.
3. We have been shown some photos. Some photos have been shown to us.
4. The winners are being given flowers. Flowers are being given to the winners.
5. The students are going to be told the answers. The answers are going to be told to the students.

Exercise 3.
1. Is a new computer being produced by Apple?
2. Were iPods being produced by all computer companies last year?
3. Was the internal structure of the Statue of Liberty designed by Gustave Eiffel?
4. Is Japanese taught at ITU?
5. How many t-shirts have been sold today??
6. When will the suspects be questioned?

Exercise 4.

1. was made 6. were introduced / have been added

2. was / was / weighed / lasted 7. had / are
3. own / will reach / will be used 8. is / is manufactured / has / is sold
4. was sent / were sent 9. are thrown
5. have been sold 10. will be replaced

Exercise 5.
1. appeared 6. were taken
2. is covered 7. was performed
3. is warmed 8. have been examined
4. falls 9. has been found
5. were sent

Exercise 6.

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1. are sold
2. was named
3. made
4. is known
5. made
6. was paid
7. doesn’t appear
8. is recognised
9. was created