LESSON 2

VERBS WE COMMONLY USE IN THE PASSIVE

PHRASAL VERBS; VERB + PREPOSITION
VERBS WE COMMONLY USE IN THE PASSIVE
1. verbs without an agent we use some verbs more often in the passive than in the
active because the agent is either unknown or obvious, or not important to what we want
to say:
I was born in Italy.
My neighbours been arrested!
She was fined 100$ for driving without insurance.
Stockholm has been dubbed the Venice of the North.
A reminder will be sent by post.
The stadium was built in 1983.
2. prepositions some passive verbs collocate with particular prepositions. E.g.:
Weve been conditioned into accepting TV as essential.
The athlete was acclaimed as a national hero.
The old man has been indicted as a war criminal.
I dont think any of these remarks could be construed as positive.
3. no preposition some common passive verbs (e.g.: be called, be named, be deemed, be
dubbed) are not commonly followed by a preposition:
All his efforts were deemed a complete waste of public resources.
Ive been called many things in my life, but never stupid.
4. phrasal verbs we also commonly use particular verbs in the passive:
This coat was handed down to me by my elder brother.
I was so caught up in my book that I failed to realise the time.
The get-out clause was written into their contract.

PRACTICE
1. Match the beginning of the sentences (1-10) with a suitable ending (a-j):
1. The condemned man was reprieved
2. I was completely mesmerized
3. The old man was paralysed
4. Both players were penalized
5. Ive been swamped
6. The meeting has been scheduled
7. John was somewhat disconcerted
8. His behaviour was in danger

a. for complaining to the referee.

b. by experienced machine operators.
c. as aggressive.
d. at the last moment.
e. for next Friday
f. by his performance.
g. by his performance.

of being construed
9. She was hospitalized
10. The factory is staffed

h. with offers of help.

i. down one side after the stroke.
j. for three months after the accident.

PHRASAL VERBS; VERB + PREPOSITION

A. Phrasal verb, or verb + preposition? phrasal verbs are verbs which are always
followed by an adverb (cloud over), a preposition (come across sth/sb), or an adverb and
a preposition (creep up on sth/sb). The meaning of a phrasal verb is sometimes obvious
from the meaning of the parts, e.g.: fall down. But the meaning is often more idiomatic
and so less obvious, e.g.: put up with sb/sth.
1. phrasal verbs can be either transitive or intransitive:
Would you turn off the radio, please.
When you get to the next crossroads, turn off.
2. a preposition can sometimes follow a verb which is not a phrasal verb:
Who lives across the road?
3. some prepositions commonly follow certain verbs because of meaning and
collocation:
This broken plate will have to be paid for.
What are you looking at?
B. Position of object
1. when a phrasal verb is transitive, we can place a noun object before or after the
verb:
Please turn the radio off. Please turn off the radio.
2. when an object is pronoun, it is always placed before the adverb:
Please turn it off.
3. with a verb + preposition, the preposition is placed before its object. We cant put
the object between a verb and a preposition:
Ive come into money.
I came into it when my father died.
4. verb + adverb + preposition behave in the same way as verbs + preposition:
Youll have to put up with them for a little longer.
C. Prepositions after passives many prepositions can follow passive verbs.
1. the most common are by (used to mention the agent), with (used to mention how
something is done or what it is done with) and in:
Theyre being cared for by a neighbour.
It was prepared with great patience.
Man was first discovered in East Africa.

2. we use other prepositions when the meaning or verb + preposition collocation

requires them:
Money has been directed towards the costs.

PRACTICE
1. Choose the preposition that best completes each sentence.
1. My attention was drawn .. the picture on the far wall.
a. with
b. to
c. for
d. on
2. The stolen paintings were eventually restored .. their rightful owner.
a. for
b. by
c. to
d. with
3. Italy were knocked the World Cup.
a. into
b. away from c. out of
d. forward to
4. The argument is centered . whether or not to lower the age limit.
a. on
b. towards
c. of
d. about
5. Emphasis is placed practical training.
a. over
b. with
c. by
d. on
6. The younger sons consider themselves to have been robbed .. their rightful
inheritance.
a. by
b. with
c. around
d. of
7. The discussion will be divided three parts for the sake of clarity.
a. to
b. for
c. into
d. with
8. The white BMW was eliminated police enquiries at an early stage.
a. with
b. from
c. of
d. for
9. A whole host of criticisms have been leveled . the committee.
a. against
b. towards
c. by
d. for
10. The final cost has been estimated .. anything between four and five
million dollars.
a. against
b. to
c. at
d. in
2. Put the corresponding letter of the right word into the blank of each sentence.
1. Do you think he could be .. upon to make a speech after the presentation?
a. prevailed
b. impelled
c. urged
d. pressured
2. Im afraid a penalty clause has been written your contract.
a. out of
b. into
c. down
d. away for
3. I was completely over by their warm reception.
a. pushed
b. run
c. bowled
d. thrown
4. I think the implications have been rather quickly over.
a. painted
b. removed
c. sprayed
d. glossed
5. A number of very interesting proposals have been put
a. across
b. down
c. forward
d. through

Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech

Introductory: Language Defined
Speech is so familiar a feature of daily life that we rarely pause to define it. It seems as
natural to man as walking, and only less so than breathing. Yet it needs but a moment's
reflection to convince us that this naturalness of speech is but an illusory feeling. The
process of acquiring speech is, in sober fact, an utterly different sort of thing from the
process of learning to walk. In the case of the latter function, culture, in other words, the
traditional body of social usage, is not seriously brought into play. The child is
individually equipped, by the complex set of factors that we term biological heredity, to
make all the needed muscular and nervous adjustments that result in walking. Indeed, the
very conformation of these muscles and of the appropriate parts of the nervous system
may be said to be primarily adapted to the movements made in walking and in similar
activities. In a very real sense the normal human being is predestined to walk, not
because his elders will assist him to learn the art, but because his organism is prepared
from birth, or even from the moment of conception, to take on all those expenditures of
nervous energy and all those muscular adaptations that result in walking. To put it
concisely, walking is an inherent, biological function of man.
Not so language. It is of course true that in a certain sense the individual is predestined to
talk, but that is due entirely to the circumstance that he is born not merely in nature, but
in the lap of a society that is certain, reasonably certain, to lead him to its traditions.
Eliminate society and there is every reason to believe that he will learn to walk, if,
indeed, he survives at all. But it is just as certain that he will never learn to talk, that is, to
communicate ideas according to the traditional system of a particular society. Or, again,
remove the new-born individual from the social environment into which he has come and
transplant him to an utterly alien one. He will develop the art of walking in his new
environment very much as he would have developed it in the old. But his speech will be
completely at variance with the speech of his native environment. Walking, then, is a
general human activity that varies only within circumscribed limits as we pass from
individual to individual. Its variability is involuntary and purposeless. Speech is a human
activity that varies without assignable limit as we pass from social group to social group,
because it is a purely historical heritage of the group, the product of long-continued social
usage. It varies as all creative effort varies not as consciously, perhaps, but
nonetheless as truly as do the religions, the beliefs, the customs, and the arts of different
peoples. Walking is an organic, an instinctive, function (not, of course, itself an instinct);
speech is a non-instinctive, acquired, "cultural" function.
Sapir, Edward. "Introductory: Language defined." Chapter 1 in Language: An introduction to the study of
speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World (1921): 3-23.