PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS
When reporting what people say or believe, we can use “people” at the beginning of the
sentence:
People believe that alcohol is bad for your health
The same idea can be expressed by using the passive in two different ways:
It is believed that alcohol is bad for your health
Alcohol is believed to be bad for your health
Also: Calculate, claim, consider, discover, estimate, expect, fell, hope, know, prove,
report, say, show, think, understand
When forming passive constructions like the ones above, tenses vary according to the tense in
the original sentence.
Johnson is believed to have left Cardiff last month
The suspect is thought to be living in Florence
Rephrasing – practice
· People think that neither side wanted war.
Neither side is ...................................................................................................
· People say that fewer than 1,000 blue whales survive in the southern hemisphere.
Fewer ................................................................................................................
· Everyone knows that eating fruit is good for you.
Eating fruit ........................................................................................................
· People consider that one in three bathing beaches is unfit for swimming.
One in three bathing beaches ............................................................................
· At least 130,000 dolphins are reported to be caught in the nets of tuna fishers every year.
It is ....................................................................................................................
· It is estimated that in the past 15 years about 10 million dolphins have been killed.
About 10 million dolphins ...............................................................................
· In ancient Greece people thought dolphins were men who had abandoned life on land.
In ancient Greece it ..........................................................................................
· In ancient Rome it was believed that dolphins carried souls to heaven.
In ancient Rome dolphins ................................................................................
· People say that the company invested fifty million pounds last week.
The company ....................................................................................................
· People say Mr Clark was difficult to work with when he was younger.
Mr Clark ...........................................................................................................
· Someone has calculated that the water of the River Rhine contains over 2,000 chemicals.
It .......................................................................................................................
· Everyone thought the painting had been destroyed in the fire.
The painting ......................................................................................................
· It is believed that the Chinese invented gunpowder.
The Chinese ......................................................................................................
· About 1 million papers are thought to have been sold.
People ...............................................................................................................
· It is thought that the two injured men were repairing high-tension cable.
The two .............................................................................................................
· We hope that the government has prepared a plan.
The government ................................................................................................
· People say that Mr Bond was having business difficulties when he was charged with fraud.
Mr Bond ............................................................................................................
· It is thought that this treasure dates from the 19th century.
This treasure ......................................................................................................
· People believe that a professional thief stole the painting.
It ........................................................................................................................
1.- Correct the mistake in each of the following sentences by Cambridge First candidates
· The mark on the ceiling was -appeared last week.
· He escaped without having being recognised by anyone.
· A shopping mall was been built in the town centre about 20 years ago.
· Most of the problems was happened when we arrived at the hotel.
· Yesterday I went to your barber's shop to cut my hair and I was very disappointed
· I can get my computer fixing at the shop next to the bank.
