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Read the following sentences:

They invited Joe for the party.


Joe was invited for the party.
They have prepared the party.
The party has been prepared.
prepared
What is the difference?
Who is responsible for the action in both sentences?
Passive voice is used to indicate that an action was done, and
we do not, necessarily, need to know who was responsible for the
action.

Structure
TO BE + PAST PARTICIPLE
Examples:
The exercise is done everyday.
The exercise was done yesterday.
The exercise is being done now.
The exercise was being done when I arrived.
The exercise will be done.
The exercise is going to be done.
The exercise has been done.
The exercise must be done.
The exercise could be done.
The exercise would be done, if they had time.

See the difference:


Hes invited his friends for the party.
Hes invited for every party at school.
Is it Present Perfect or Passive voice? Why?

Now, read the following text and


try to identify all the passive voice
used. However, pay attention to
the story and, if it is possible:
Identify the person responsible
for the actions.
Identify the verb tense, and how
it was used.
Identify the subject of the
sentence.

It is the worlds number one brand and


it is recognized by 94% of the worlds
population! For many years now, Cocacola has been a symbol of American
culture. It is also the best selling soft
drink in the world. More than 60.000
products from the Coca-Cola company
are drunk around the world every
minute.

One hundred years ago, few man wore wristwatches: but the
Rolex company based in Switzerland since 1908 changed all
that. They gave us the first wristwatches, to show the date, the
first diving watches, the first sports watch, the first watch to
show different time zones... And now Rolex watches (with
prices that range from $3,000 to $20,000) are worn as a status
symbol all over the world.

Samsung (the name means three stars) began as a


company in 1938. It originally produced noodles and
dried fish!. However, the company has come a long
way since then. Mobile phones, digital cameras, flat
screen TVs, DVD players... You name it, are all
manufactured by this electronics giant from South
Korea.

The makers of cars driven by the rich and


famous, the Mercedes company has its base in
Germany. Emil Jallinek, a wealthy banker who
bought and loved cars, named the car after his
nine-year-old daughter. And the famous threepoint Mercedes star was designed to symbolize
the growth of the business into transport on
land, sea and air.

The famous face which is seen at more than 9,000 KFC restaurants worldwide actually
belonged to a real person: Colonel Harland Sanders. At different times he was a soldier,
an insurance agent, a tire salesman and worked in his parents petrol station. When he
saw people were more interested in his home-made food than the petrol he was selling,
he decided to open his first restaurant in Utah, USA, in the early 1950s. Colonel Sanders
is also remembered for organizing the biggest party in history about 35,000 people
attended his seventy-ninth birthday in 1970.

Look at the objects and say which one do the following


sentences refer to:
1.Its mainly used by women.
Its usually sold in chemists shops.
Its usually kept in a handbag or purse.
2.

Theyre usually made of plastic.


Theyre sometimes kept in peoples bathroom.
They are used more by men than by women.

3.Theyre accepted all over the world.


Theyre usually made of plastic.
Theyre usually used by millions of people everyday to buy
things.
Now, its your turn, try to make sentences for the other objects.
USE PASSIVE VOICE.

Some curiosities:

Which one do you think its true?


1.The first dark glasses:
a. were made to help pilots flying.
b. were used by blind people.
c. were worn in China by Chinese judges.
2.The first blue jeans:
a. were designed as working clothes by man called Levi
Strauss.
b. were made in China in the 1960s.
3.The first liquid shampoo:
a. was invented by a Frenchman called Charles Champ.
b. was used in India over two thousand years ago.
c. was developed by a bald man.
4. Chanels most famous perfume is called No 5 because:
a. No 5 was its inventors lucky number.
b. it took five years to develop it.
c. it was created in 1905.

Lets practice:
Choose the best form (active or passive) to complete the
sentences:
a.The disposable razor invented / was invented by King
Camp Gillette.
b. Hungarian journalist Lszlo Biro invented / was invented
the worlds first ballpoint pen in the 1930s.
c. The DVD player is now the worlds number one
entertainment product. The first one manufactured / was
manufactured in 1997.
d. In 2003, Google voted / was voted the worlds most
popular Internet search engine.

Now, its your turn to do some research on:


some products invented, used or created and talk a
little bit about them.
Some sports or activities done or taken nowadays.
Any situation that it was already invented or
thought .
You have to use passive voice in most of the
sentences. (Any verb tense)
You can say how, when, where was created.
You can say how it is used / eaten / prepared
nowadays.

The history of chocolate begins in Mesoamerica. Chocolate, the fermented,


roasted, and ground beans of the Theobroma cacao, can be traced to the Mokaya
and other pre-Olmec people, with evidence of chocolate beverages dating back to
1900 BC.[1] The Aztecs believed that cacao seeds were the gift of Quetzalcoatl,
the God of wisdom, and the seeds had so much value they were used as a form of
currency. Originally prepared only as a drink, chocolate was served as a bitter,
frothy liquid, mixed with spices, wine or corn puree. It was believed to have
aphrodisiac powers and to give the drinker strength.
After its arrival in the sixteenth century, sugar was added to it and it became
popular through Europe, first among the ruling classes and then among the
common people. In the 20th century, chocolate was considered a staple, essential
in the rations of United States soldiers at war.[2]
The word "chocolate" comes from the Classical Nahuatl word chocoltl, and
entered the English language from Spanish.[3]

Chocolate Listeni/tklt/ is a typically sweet, usually brown, food preparation of Theobroma


cacao seeds, roasted and ground, often flavored, as with vanilla. It is made in the form of a liquid,
paste, or in a block, or used as a flavoring ingredient in other sweet foods. Cacao has been
cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of
use traces to the Mokaya (Mexico and Guatemala), with evidence of chocolate beverages dating
back to 1900 BC.[1] In fact, the majority of Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages,
including the Maya and Aztecs,[2] who made it into a beverage known as xocoltl [ okola tt], a
Nahuatl word meaning "bitter water". The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste and
must be fermented to develop the flavor.
After fermentation, the beans are dried, cleaned, and roasted. The shell is removed to produce
cacao nibs, which are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because the
cocoa mass is usually liquefied before being molded with or without other ingredients, it is called
chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa
butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa
butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet
chocolate, a combination of cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is
sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains
cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, but no cocoa solids.
Cocoa solids are a source of flavonoids[3] and alkaloids, such as theobromine, phenethylamine and
caffeine.[4]
Chocolate has become one of the most popular food types and flavors in the world, and a vast
number of foodstuffs involving chocolate have been created. Gifts of chocolate molded into different
shapes have become traditional on certain holidays. Chocolate is also used in cold and hot
beverages such as chocolate milk and hot chocolate.

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