No.

31

The Passive: Present Simple, Past Simple, Present Perfect Active: Simon has painted the house. (The speaker is talking about Simon and the house) Passive: The house has been painted. (Only the house is being talked about) Present Past noun/pronoun The cars noun/pronoun The cars + + is/are are was/were were + + past participle taken abroad. past participle taken abroad.

Form:

Present noun/pronoun + has/have been + past participle Perfect The cars have been taken abroad. Rewrite these sentences, putting the verbs in the Passive as they are for active sentences. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 We clean the garages every day. Someone has given him a lot of money. The police arrested two hundred people. We check every car engine thoroughly. Every car engine ___________________________thoroughly. We export this computer to seventy different countries. This computer _____________________________to seventy different countries. They have cancelled the meeting. The meeting _____________________________________________________. We opened the factory at 9 o'clock. The factory ______________________________________________________. They send two million books to America every year. Two million books _________________________________________________. We have invited all the students in the school. All the students in the school _________________________________________. We have told him not to be late again. He ___________________________________________not to be late again. They posted all the letters yesterday. All the letters ______________________________________________________. The machine wraps the bread automatically. The bread _________________________________________________________. They paid me a lot of money to do the job. I ______________________________________________________to do the job. Fortunately, they didn't damage the machinery. Fortunately, the machinery ____________________________________________. We send the newspapers to Scotland by train. The newspapers _____________________________________________________. The garages are cleaned every day. He has been given a lot of money. Two hundred people were arrested.

No 32 Form:

The Passive: Present Simple: Continuous: Past Simple: Continuous: Present Perfect Past Perfect Future Simple: Continuous: Simple: Continuous: Simple: Continuous:

All tenses, simple and continuous. is/are + past participle The letters are delivered here. is/are being + past participle He is being interviewed at the moment. was/were + past participle They were sent by train. is/were being + past participle My suit was being cleaned at the time. has/have been + past participle All the tickets have been sold. --had been + past participle I was too late; the papers had been removed. --will be + past participle You will be met at the station. --Gerund He doesn't like being told what to do.

Infinitive (to) be + past participle I don't want to be arrested. We shouldn't be arrested.

Notes:

The passive is frequently used to describe scientific or mechanical processes, or in formal explanations: The passive is frequently used ... It is not essential to repeat the auxiliary verb to be in a list of processes: The cars are washed, cleaned, checked and then driven to the ports.

No 32a

Underline all the passives.

Acid rain is caused by burning coal or oil. When either fuel is burnt, it releases poisonous gases which are carried up into the atmosphere and sometimes transported long distances. Over 3,000 research projects have been carried out to look into acid rain, and a decision to tackle the problem has been taken in most of the western European countries. Measures have been taken in Scandinavia and in Central Europe to stop the pollution before it is dumped on the environment, and a diplomatic campaign has been launched to convince other countries that the problem has to be considered as a major ecological threat. Five years ago this issue was not being treated seriously, says one leading environmental group, but now that damage has been reported in large areas of forest and lakeland, our politicians are being forced to take action. The problem must be solved quickly. If governments do nothing, they will be faced in two or three years' time with the accusation that they have allowed our forests to die. A major international initiative to combat acid rain is expected in the near future.