Cover of the textbook New Total English Advanced - Students' Book

The key answer of exercise 5

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 1.2 - Famous firsts for the textbook New Total English Advanced - Students' Book with authors JJ Wilson with Antonia Clare from Pearson Education

Question

  1. Look at examples 1-6 in the Active grammar box and underline the passives.
  2. Read rules A-C in the Active grammar box and write true (T) or false (F).
  3. Why do you think passives are used in these sentences?

Answer

a)

  1. was widely believed
  2. 's said
  3. 's commonly assumed
  4. were discovered
  5. is said
  6. is often thought

b)

  1. T
  2. F
  3. T

c)

The passive is used in these examples to distance the speaker from the statements made. They are not the speaker's own opinion, and in some cases, it is not 100% certain that the information is correct.