breed 1 /briːd/ noun [ C ]
1 ANIMAL [ FARMING ] a
type of dog, sheep, pig, etc
a rare
breed of cattle
2 PERSON/THING a type
of person or thing
a new
breed of bank
shortage /ˈʃɔːtɪdʒ/ noun [ C ]
Word partners for shortage
an acute / chronic
/ desperate / serious shortage • a shortage of sth
when there is not enough of
something
a shortage
of nurses
food
shortages
abundant /əˈbʌndənt/ adjective
existing in large quantities
an abundant
supply of food
abundantly adverb
havoc /ˈhævək/ noun [ U ]
Word partners for havoc
cause / create / wreak havoc
• play havoc with sth
a very confused and possibly
dangerous situation
The
snow has caused havoc on Scotland
cyclone /ˈsaɪkləʊn/ noun [ C ]
a violent storm with very strong winds which move in a
circle
soil 1 /sɔɪl/ noun [ C , U ]
[ FARMING ] the top layer of earth that plants grow in
clay/sandy
soil
insult 2 /ˈɪnsʌlt/ noun [ C ]
They were shouting insults at
each other.
His comments are an insult to
the victims of the war.
2 add insult to injury
to make someone's bad situation worse by doing
something else to upset them
emergency /ɪˈmɜːdʒ ə nsi/ noun [ C ]
Word
partners for emergency
cope with / respond to an emergency • a major / real
emergency • in an emergency
a serious or dangerous situation that needs immediate
action
You should only ring this number
in an emergency .
an emergency exit
centigrade /ˈsentɪgreɪd/ ( written abbreviation C ) noun
[ U ]
[ MEASURES ] a measurement of temperature in which water freezes at
0° and boils at 100°
accurate
/ˈækjərət/
adjective
correct
or exact
accurate
information/measurements
She
was able to give police a fairly accurate description of the man.
The
opposite is inaccurate
accurately
adverb
The Passive Voice
An active sentence like I
drank two cups of coffee has the subject first (the person or thing
that does the verb), followed by the verb, and finally the object (the person
or thing that the action happens to).
So, in this example, the subject is 'I', the verb is
'drank' and the object is 'two cups of coffee'.
But, we don't always need to make sentences this way. We
might want to put the object first, or perhaps we don't want to say who did
something. This can happen for lots of reasons (see the explanation further
down the page). In this case, we can use a passive, which puts the object
first:
- Two cups of coffee were drunk (we can add 'by me'
if we want, but it isn't necessary).
How to make the Passive in
English
We make the passive by putting the verb 'to be' into
whatever tense we need and then adding the past participle. For
regular verbs, we make the past participle by adding 'ed' to the infinitive. So play becomes played.
Tense
|
Active
|
Passive
|
|
present
simple
|
I make a
cake.
|
A cake is made (by me).
|
|
present
continuous
|
I am making a cake.
|
A cake is being made (by me).
|
|
past
simple
|
I made a
cake.
|
A cake was made (by me).
|
|
past
continuous
|
I was making a cake.
|
A cake was being made (by me).
|
|
present
perfect
|
I have made a cake.
|
A cake has been made (by me).
|
|
pres.
perf. continuous
|
I have been making a cake.
|
A cake has been being made(by me).
|
|
past
perfect
|
I had made a cake.
|
A cake had been made (by me).
|
|
future
simple
|
I will make a cake.
|
A cake will be made (by me).
|
|
future
perfect
|
I will have made a cake.
|
A cake will have been made(by me).
|
|
Verbs with two objects
Some verbs that have two objects can make two
different active sentences, and so two different passive sentences too:
Give
Give
- Active: He gave me the book / He gave the book to
me.
You can choose either of the two objects to be the
subject of the passive sentence.
- Passive: I was given the book (by him)/ The book
was given to me (by him).
Other verbs like this are: ask, offer, teach, tell,
lend, promise, sell, throw.
When should we use the Passive?
1. When we want to change the focus of the sentence:
o
The Mona Lisa was
painted by Leonardo Da Vinci. (We are more interested in the painting than the
artist in this sentence)
2. When who or what causes the action is unknown or
unimportant or obvious or 'people in general':
o
He was arrested
(obvious agent, the police).
o
My bike has been
stolen (unknown agent).
o
The road is being
repaired (unimportant agent).
o
The form can be
obtained from the post office (people in general).
3. In factual or scientific writing:
o
The chemical is
placed in a test tube and the data entered into the computer.
4. In formal writing instead of using someone/ people/
they (these can be used in speaking or informal writing):
o
The brochure will be
finished next month.
5. In order to put the new information at the end of the
sentence to improve style:
o
Three books are used
regularly in the class. The books were written by Dr. Bell. ('Dr. Bell wrote the
books' sound clumsy)
6. When the subject is very long:
o
I was surprised by
how well the students did in the test. (More natural than: 'how well the
students did in the test surprised me')
Impersonal Passive - It is said
...
The phrase It is said ... is an
impersonal passive construction. We often use it in news.
Passive sentence - version 1:
It is said that children are afraid of ghosts.
It is said that children are afraid of ghosts.
Passive sentence - version 2:
Children are said to be afraid of ghosts.
Children are said to be afraid of ghosts.
The correct active sentence would be:
Active sentence: People say that children are afraid of ghosts.
Active sentence: People say that children are afraid of ghosts.
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