II. Passive voice without agent.
Observe the following sentences taken from the text.
I was born.
Emergency was declared.
I was asked to go and sit on the back bench
You might have learnt in your previous classes about active and passive voice
constructions. Though the above sentences are in the passive, the agent is not mentioned.
The agents are not mentioned in the following situations. • When the agent is obvious
• When the agent is not known
• When it is not desirable to reveal the identity of the agent
Pick out from the text some more passive constructions without agents and
give reasons why the agent is not mentioned. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
III. Editing
Edit the following paragraph. It has some errors in the areas like punctuation,
spelling, tense, prepositions, articles.
he told me as if thinking aloud abul i know you have to go away to grow did the
seagull not fly toward the son alone without a nest he quotes Khalil Gibran to my hesitant
mother your children are not your children they are sons and daughters of lifes longing to
itself they come to you but not from you you may give them love but not your thoughts for
they have there own thoughts.