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
Look at examples 1-6 in the Active grammar box and underline the passives.
Read rules A-C in the Active grammar box and write true (T) or false (F).
Why do you think passives are used in these sentences?
Answer
Click below to reveal the answer
a)
was widely believed
's said
's commonly assumed
were discovered
is said
is often thought
b)
T
F
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.