English 3 Unit 12 In the news Learning Objectives By the end of this lesson you will be able to: Use the simple past passive voice in news stories. Talk about local, national and international news events. Talk about extreme weather and natural disasters. 1
Introduction News at the moment that happen! *A man was found injured after he fell from the 6 th floor of his building; the rescuers were surprised, after they saw the man was still alive. *Thousands of houses were destroyed after a tornado hit the small town of San Miguel el Grande. The people weren t prepared for this natural disaster, many people got injured. *The election in Oaxaca was won by the candidate of the PRI. The other parties Pan and PRD aren t convinced this was a fair election. *The actor Charlie Sheen was found guilty after driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. In this unit you will learn the simple past passive voice, a grammatical structure people use commonly to give news. In spoken English is often used because the English speakers tend to emphasis more in the object and situations than in the people who makes an action. This grammatical structure is not complicated at all, although you have to be careful with the spelling rules and understand the doer of the action is not important in these statements. Now you will be able to report what you see in your city and use the correct grammatical structures. 2
Use the simple past passive voice when you want to focus on an action, situation, event and object rather than in who performed the action. My wallet was stolen, when I was walking in downtown. In the example, our focus is on the wallet and we aren t mentioning who stole it. Maybe we do not know who did it. Use the following form to make statements: Affirmative statements Subject was/were verb past participle complement A bank was robbed last night, unfortunately a police officer was killed. The NBA final game was played in the beautiful city of Miami and the championship was won by the Lakers. Guns and drugs were confiscated in Sinaloa. 3
Negative statements Subject was not/were not verb past participle complement Jersey Shore and Jackass, reality TV shows, weren t cancelled, even though some people think they are inappropriate. The new IPAD wasn t launched on time, due to some problems in its distribution. The politicians weren t invited to the debate. Yes-No questions Was/ Were subject verb past participle complement Were the stores closed during the thunderstorm? No, they weren t. Was a criminal organization involved in the shooting? Yes, it was. Were the Mexican souvenirs made in China? No, they were made in México. 4
Information questions Whword Was/ Were subject verb past participle complement Where were the chocolates produced? They were produced in Switzerland. When was the company founded? It was founded in 1924. Why were the buildings destroyed? Because, they weren t safe anymore. Simple Past passive voice When the doer of the action, also called agent, is important for the statement, it appears after the preposition by. Subject + was/were + verb in past participle + by + agent. The thief was arrested by the police. The cakes weren t baked by the famous chef. 5
Adverbs with the passive voice These adverbs are used in news reports and they show the extension or degree of verbs. Form to make the passive voice statements with adverbs. Subject + was/were + adverb + past participle. The car was badly damaged after the accident. The passengers weren t seriously injured. The airport was completely closed. The electricity was temporarily cut. The town was partially destroyed. Natural Disasters and other definitions Hurricane Hit Disrupted Damaged Heavy rains Strong winds Severe thunderstorms Thunder and lightning Rescued Floods Destroyed Catastrophic Wildfires Struck (strike) Tornado Hailstorm Hailstones Injured Earthquake Quake Aftershock Blackout 6
Closing I m here in Francisco I. Madero Street where as you can see, a house is on fire. The neighbors said they heard and explosion, and suddenly the fire started consuming the whole house. Some bottles of gasoline were found a few blocks away by the police, so arson is suspected in this case. Fortunately no victims were found inside the house. And the firemen are working to stop the fire. I m Susana Valdez reporting for Channel 5. In these days when many things happen around the world like violence, wars and natural disasters, being able to use the technology to report what is happening at the moment, gives the people the opportunity to be informed. With the social networks and cellphones now days anyone can be a reporter, because we have the chance to film and talk about what happens around us. This is the importance of what you learned in this unit, being able to report what happens. As you could see the simple past passive voice is a very and easy grammatical structure and also important for you to communicate in English. Remember in a passive voice you are talking about situations, the doer is not so important. 7
Bibliography McCarthy, Michael. Et al. (2008) Touchstone Full Contact 3.Cambridge University Press. Murphy, R., et al. (2009): Grammar in Use Intermediate Student's Book with answers. Cambridge University Press. Heacock, P. (2008): Cambridge Dictionary of American English. Cambridge University Press. Credits Content design: Lic. Adriana Bernardino Mosqueda Academic Coordinator: Lic. Jessica Patricia Garza Macías Content edition: Lic. Ann Elisabeth Mancillas Hinojosa, MAD Production and content editing: Tecnología Educativa Universidad Virtual, ITESM 8