Passive of beliefs, thoughts, and opinions

1. In some circles, the Basques are considered to be the descendants of the Atlanteans.

2. For centuries before Copernicus, the Earth had been thought to be the center of the universe.

3. Lee Harvey Oswald has been claimed to be the assassin of President John Kennedy, but there are some who don't believe this.

4. Mother Teresa and Albert Schweitzer are regarded great humanitarians.

5. In the Middle Ages, fairies and other spirit creatures were believed to be real.

6. Since the 19th century, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln have been considered the greatest American presidents by many.

7. Bigfoot, a large, mysterious forest creature, is said to live in the Pacific Northwest.

8. In the 15th century and afterwards, King Richard HI of England was regarded a monster king. Today he has a better reputation.

9. Today William Shakespeare is assumed to be the author of the plays credited to him, but some have suggested he couldn't have written them all.

10. From time to time, certain people have been alleged to be criminals, but they are later proved innocent by DNA evidence.

Stative Passive 1

1. North and South America are connected by the Isthmus of Panama.

2. The island nations of the region, of course, are surrounded by the Caribbean.

3. The island of Hispaniola is divided into two nations: Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

4. Cuba is bordered by about 90 miles south of Florida.

5. The nation of Trinidad and Tobago is made up of two separate islands: Trinidad and Tobago.

6. On the north, Costa Rica is bordered by Nicaragua and on the south by Panama.

7. The nation of The Bahamas is composed of many islands, some large and some small.

8. The nation of Panama is divided into two parts by the Panama Canal.

9. Jamaica and Puerto Rico are located in west and east, respectively, of Hispaniola.

10. The French-speaking islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique was found in the eastern Caribbean, north of South America.

Read this student essay about the crop circles in Britain and elsewhere. There are 15 mistakes in the use of the passive. The first one is already corrected. Find and correct 14 more.

The Crop Circles

In our day,  we believed in science and have the feeling that every question can be explain and every problem can be solved. But some of us want the opposite. We don't want everything to be explained. We like puzzles. We feel that mystery is needing in our lives.

The mysterious crop circles that have been appeared around the world in the last 25 years or so are an example of this. These formations have reported in more than 20 countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia. But most of them have been finding in grain fields in southern England. These circles, which are large and flat, are caused by a force that flattens the grain but does not destroy it. They are still been made.

How have these circles produced? By whom have they been made? Since the first discovery of the circles, many explanations have been proposed. According to some people, the circles has been made by spirit creatures like fairies. Others say they have been causing by "Star Wars" experiments or are messages that been left by extraterrestrials visiting our planet. Two British painters, David Chorley and Douglas Bower, say they were made the crop circles over a period of years as a joke. If this is true, however, how can we explain the crop circles in Australia and Canada and other places? They couldn't all have being made by Chorley and Bower, could they?

In 2002, director M. Night Shyamalan released his movie Signs, which is about the crop circle question. The movie shows clearly that the crop circles made by invading aliens from beyond our solar system. This is one interesting and enjoyable theory. More explanations like it get needed. What's fun is speculation. The mystery doesn't need to be solved.

Listen to the story carefully and discuss with your partners why passive causative or active past perfect forms have been used.

Yesterday was a typically unpredictable day in the life of detective Harry Sadler. Since Harry hadn't been able to eat at home, he got some breakfast brought up to his office from the cafeteria as soon as he arrived at work. After breakfast he e-mailed some digital photos of a crime scene to the lab to have them enlarged. He spent a couple of hours going over files and then left the office for the garage where he was getting his care tuned up. Harry's mechanic said that he should also have the windshield replaced. Harry agreed and arranged to pick the car up at the end of the day. At lunchtime he met with the members of his investigative team. Time was short, so they got lunch delivered from a nearby restaurant. They studied the evidence they had got analyzed by the police crime lab. They have completed the work by 2:00. After the meeting Harry spent a couple of hours writing a report by hand. He had finished the report by 4:00, so he then had it typed by his secretary. At 5:30 he left the office, picked up his car, and then met his wife for dinner and a movie. They were having their kitchen remodelled and couldn't do any cooking. At 11:00 P.M. they arrived home. It's a good thing Harry loves his work because it was another long, tiring, but interesting day.

Two Unsolved Mysteries Continue to Fascinate

So you think there are no more mysteries, that all mysteries are solved in time? Think again. The pages of history are full of mysteries that have not been cracked.

Consider, for example, the case of the ship Mary Celeste. The ship had left New York for Italy in 1872. Later it was sighted floating east of the Azores. No one was found on board, though everything else on the ship had been determined to be in order, and there was no indication why the Mary Celeste had been abandonned. Apparendy, in fact, tables were set for afternoon tea. One theory speculates that the ship might have been threatened by an explosion that was caused by fumes from its cargo of alcohol. That theory, however, has not been proved.

A second perplexing mystery is that of Amelia Earhart, the famous aviator who in the 1920s and 1930s was considered the best example of a strong woman. Earhart flew across the Atlantic with two men in 1928 and set a record for a cross-Atlantic flight in 1932. In 1937 she embarked on her most ambitious plan, a flight around the world. Earhart began her flight in Miami in June and was accompanied only by Fred Noonan, her navigator. They reached New Guinea and left for Howland Island in the South Pacific on July 1. After that, no radio reports or messages of any kind have been recieved. No remains of her plane have been discovered by naval investigators in the years since then. Did she simply attempt the impossible? Could she and Noonan have been killed when her plane ran out of fuel and crashed? Or could something else have happened? No one really knows.

For the time being, at least, the riddle of the Mary Celeste and the fate of Amelia Earhart will have to remain mysterious. Maybe they should not be solved at all.

Listen to the breaking news from KKBO and discuss with your partners why passive voice is used.

Here is breaking news from KKBO News Channel 6. Two suspects are beinq held_in the county jail, where they are being questioned about their role in a bank robbery that took place this morning at the downtown branch of First International Bank. As the bank's vault was being opened, the suspects, wearing masks and carrying guns, burst in and demanded that an undisclosed amount of money be placed in a paper bag. They escaped with the funds but were later caught after a customer noticed the license plate number of the vehicle the suspects were driving and notified bank authorities. The identities of the two suspects are being withheld until the initial investigation is completed. Other bank customers are currently being interviewed for additional information. This is Ron Mason for KKBO News Channel 6. Stay tuned for further updates.

The Use of Passive Voice

1. Use the passive voice:

a. when we don't know who performed the action or when it is not important to say who performed it.

Example:

•   The money was stolen.

•   The plane was refueled.

b. when we want to avoid mentioning the agent

Example:

A criminal is sometimes regarded as a hero. (We don't want to say who regards him as a hero.)

c. when we want to focus on the receiver or the result of an action instead of the agent.

Example:

•  The thief was caught by the detective.

2. Use the passive with a by phrase:

a. to introduce new information about the agent

Example:

•  The money was stolen by a person.

b.  to credit someone who did something:

Example:

• The bills were photocopied by FBI

c.  when the agent is surprising

Example:

•  The money was found by a little boy

You can omit the by phrase in passive sentences if you feel it is unnecessary or undesirable to mention the agent.

Example: 

•  Why hasn't this crime been solved?

3. Most commonly, the direct object of an active sentence is the subject of the corresponding passive sentence.

Example:

•  The police arrested the suspect.

•  The suspect was arrested by the police.

However, an indirect object is sometimes the subject of a passive sentence

•  The FBI, gave Cooper the money.

•  Cooper was given the money by the FBI.

4. We often use modals and modal-like auxiliaries in the passive.

To form the present passive with a modal, use the modal + be + past participle

To form the past passive with a modal, use the modal + have been + past participle.

Example:

The criminal should be arrested.

He could have been arrested before this.

Use have (got) to, had better, had to, must, ought to, and should in passive sentences to express advisability, obligation, and necessity.

Example:

The charges had to be dropped.

Criminal suspects must be charged.

Use can and could to express present and past ability.

Example:

Suspects can't be kept in jail.

The thief could have been caught.

Use will and be going to to talk about future events.

Example:

This prisoner will be tried.

The suspects are going to be released.

Use can't, could, may, and might to talk about future possibility and impossibility.

Example:

The mystery may never be solved.

He can't be released from jail.

5. The passive can also be formed with get. The passive with get is more informal than the passive with be. It is conversational and characteristic of informal writing.

Example:

Will that criminal ever get caught?

Our team got beaten in the soccer game.

Be careful! Although the “be” passive is used both with action and non-action verbs, the get passive is used only with action verbs.

Example:

More research is needed about the causes of crime.

Not More research get needed about the causes of crime.

6. Have or get + object + past participle are used to form the passive causative. There is usually little difference in meaning between the causative with have and with get.

Example:

You should have your car serviced.

I just got my best suit dry-cleaned.

The passive causative is used in the past, present, and future and with modals

Example:

We had the windows washed.

I get my car tuned up twice a year.

She's going to get her hair cut.

7. Use the passive causative to talk about services or activities that people arrange for someone else to do.

Example:

•   The detective had the evidence analyzed.

•   Sometimes criminals get their hair dyed or shaved.

The passive causative can occur with a by phrase, but this phrase is often omitted. Use the by phrase only when it is necessary to mention the agent.

Example:

•   I got my photos developed at the drugstore.

•   We had our house inspected by Jim.

Be careful! Don't confuse the simple past causative with the past perfect.

Example:

•   They had the grass cut. (simple past causative—someone else cut the grass)

•   They had cut the grass, (past perfect—they had done this before a specific time in the past)

Be careful! Don't confuse the passive causative with the expression to get something done meaning to finish something.

Example:

•   I got the work done by a mechanic. (passive causative)

•   I got the work done by noon. (I finished the work by 12 p.m.)

Passive Voice from Context

Listen to this news article about an unsolved mystery and discuss with your partners the reasons why passive voice is used.

A lot of crimes never get solved. The case of Dan Cooper is one that hasn't been. It was an evening in late November in 1971. On a short flight between Portland and Seattle, the flight attendant was handed a note by a mysteri­ous middle-aged man dressed in a dark suit. The flight attendant thought he was making a romantic advance, so she slipped the unread note into her pocket. The man leaned closer to her, saying, "Miss, you'd better look at that note. I have a bomb." He then opened his briefcase so that she could see several red cylinders and a lot of wires. The man, who used the alias "Dan Cooper," was demanding $200,000, four parachutes, and a plane that would fly him to Mexico.

The plane proceeded to Seattle with none of the other passengers even aware that it was being hijacked. The other pas­sengers got off the plane, and "Cooper" got what he was demanding. He received the $200,000, all in $20 bills that had been photocopied by FBI agents so that they could easily be identified. Then the plane was refueled and took off for Mexico. 

A few minutes later, Cooper ordered the flight attendant to go to the cockpit and stay there. As she was leaving, she noticed him trying to tie something around his waist—presumably the bag of money. Then he opened the plane's rear stairway and jumped out of the plane. The crew felt pressure bumps that were probably caused by Cooper's jumping off the stairway. When Cooper jumped, the air temperature was seven degrees below zero. He was wearing no survival gear and only light, casual shoes on his feet.  

Cooper has not been seen or heard from since that night. Who was Cooper? Did he get away with his plan? Or was he killed trying to commit the perfect crime?

The authorities speculate that Cooper landed near Ariel, a small town near the Columbia River north of Portland. Only one real clue has been discovered. Eight and a half years later, an eight-year-old boy who was digging in a sandbank found $5,800 of Cooper's money. It was only a few inches below the surface of the earth, but it had decayed so much that only the picture and the serial numbers on the bills were visible.

Decaying rubber bands were found along with the money, indicating that the cash must have been deposited there before the bands fell apart. Since then, the area has been searched thoroughly, but no trace of Cooper has been found.

So what really happened? Many investi­gators believe that Cooper had to have been killed by the combination of the weather conditions and the impact of his fall. If this is true, though, why have none of the man's remains ever been discov­ered? Is more information known about this case than has been released? Is Cooper's body in some remote part of the wilder­ness area into which he jumped, or is he living a luxurious life under an alias some­where and driving a Rolls-Royce? Did he have the $5,800 buried by an associate in order to throw the authorities off the track? Or did he bury it himself?

Cooper has become a legend. His story has been told in books and articles and even a movie. In Ariel, the small town near where he might have landed, patrons of a tavern still celebrate the anniversary of the hijacking every year. The bar's owner, Dona Elliot, says, "He did get away with it... so far." Others don't think so. Jerry Thomas, a retired soldier who has been working inde­pendently on the case, thinks that Cooper didn't survive the fall and that his body will eventually be found. "I know there is something out here," he says. "There has to be."

The mystery goes on.