Passive Voice Exercises

1 PASSIVE VOICE 1-Change these sentences into passive ones. • The president has signed the petition. • The secretary opens the mails for him every day. • The cpmmetee is considering that proposal. • The Army will complete the project next year. • Will the ompany distribute the annoncements? • An artist wrote an interesting article abou Shakespeare plays. • Today a large number of people speak English. • Din’t they return those books to the library? • The government has not changed the regulations yet. • Someone stole all her jewelry last night. • Dr. Smith wrote all the reports for the Mayor. • Bad weather has delayed the flight. • Did the court divide the money among the children? • Many scholars has got a scholarship this year. 2-Complete the paragraph bellow by changing these sentences into the passive; include the agent only if necessary. Last year McKiney Company built two new apartment buildings in the city centre. Recently one of the buildings was damaged by an earthquake. The earthquake also destroyed the company offices in the other building. The owners of the apartments of the buildings will receive the insurance money to fix the damages. Nobody will lose the money paid for the apartments. 3- Put the verbs into the most suitable passive form. 1. There’s somebody behind us. I think we ................................................................................(follow) 2. A mistery is something that ...........................................................................................(cannot/expalin) 3. We didn’t play football yestaerday. The match ..............................................................(cancel) 4. The television ....................................................................(repair). It’s working again now. 5. The church tower ................................................................(restore). The work is almost finished. 6. ‘How old is the tower?’ ‘It ...........................................................(believe) to be over 600 years old’. 7. ‘If I didn’t do my job properly,I ...............................................................................(would/sack). 8. A_ I left some papers on the desk last night and I can’t find them now. B_ They .........................................................................(might/ throw) away. 9. I leart to swim when I was very young. I ....................................................(taech) by my mother. 10. After I .......................................................(arrest), I was taken to the police station. 11. ‘..................................................................................(you/ever/arrest)?’ ‘No, never’. 12. Two people .....................................................(report)to....................................................(injure) in an explosion at a factory in Birmingham early this morning. 13. this house is quite old. It ..................................................................(build) over 100 years ago. 14. ‘Is your car still for sale?’ ‘No, it .......................................................................(sell) yesterday’. 15. Sometimes mistakes .................................................................(make). It’s inevitable. 16. I wouldn’t leave the car unlocked. It ...........................................................(might/steal). 17. I can’t find my hat. Someone .....................................................................(must/take) it by mistake. 18. Serious problems sometimes ...................................................................(cannot/solve). 19. Every time I travel by plane, my plane ....................................................................(delay). 20. A new bridge ...................................................................(build) across the river at the moment. The bridge .................................................................(expect) to open next year. 21. We ......................................................................(wake up) by a loud noise last night. 22. There is somedody walking behind us. I think we ....................................................................(follow) 23. Where .................Brad Pitt .......................................(be born)? ‘ In the U.S.’

2 24. The train ............................................................(suppose) to arrive at 9, but it was an hour late. 25. The dinner for tonight ..........................................................(prepared) by an internatinal chef. 4- Read these newspaper reports and put the verbs into the passive form. a- Castle Fire: ‘Winston Castle..................................................................(damage) in a fire last night. The fire, which ..................................................................(discover)at about 9 o’clock, spread very quickly. Nobody ......................................................(injure) but two people had to ........................................................ (rescue) from an upstairs room. A number of paintings ..........................................................(believe/destroy) It ..................................................................(not/know) how the fire started’. b- Shop Robbery: ‘ In London yestaerday a shop assistant ..................................................................(force) to hand over 500 pounds aften ..................................................................(threaten) by a man with a knife. The man escaped in a car which..................................................................(steal)earlier in the day. The car ............................................................(later/find) in a car park where it ........................................................ (abandon) by the thief. A man ..................................................................(arrest) in connection with the robbery and ..................................................................(still/question) by the police. c- Road Delays: ‘ Repair work started yestaerday on the main road of the city. The road ............................ ......................................(resurface) and there will be long delays. Drivers ....................................................... (ask) to use alternative routes if posssible. The work ..................................................................(expect) to last two weeks. Next Sunday the road ..................................................................(close) and traffic ............ ......................................................(divert). d- Accident: ‘ A woman ..................................................................(take) to hospital after her car collided with a lorry yesterday. She..................................................................(allow) home later after treatment. The road ..................................................................(block) for an hour after the accident and traffic ................ ................................................(divert). A police inspector said afterwards: ‘The woman was lucky. She ..................................................................(kill)’.

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