Passive Voice

- Text 1

Woman’s plea after dogs are attacked.

By Nicola Robinson – News Editor

A Tamworth woman is appealing for information after her two rescue dogs were viciously attacked by another animal – leaving one needing surgery. The incident happened as Lorraine Jones took her Yorkshire terrier-poodle cross Pepper and Westie Bertie for a late-night walk, on December 21 near her home in Field Farm Road, Belgrave.

“The dog launched at Pepper and clamped on her trying to drag her away and pulled me over at the same time,” Ms Jones explained. “I just screamed for help to get it off us.”

Fortunately Ms Jones’ cries were heard by her neighbours who rushed to her aid. But as soon as Pepper was freed, the dog then “clamped down” on Bertie’s neck.

She said: “It was shaking him violently and it bit me in the process. The owner just stood there and said, “What do you expect me to do about it?” 

Ms Jones needed stitches in her left hand. Bertie suffered deep wounds to the neck and had to have eight stitches and undergo an operation, while Pepper suffered cuts to her leg.

Both dogs have been prescribed antibiotics and pain killers and the drama meant Ms Jones was forced to cancel her plans to spend Christmas Day in Yorkshire. Kind friends and generous members of the “Free to Collect Tamworth” Facebook page all donated food so Ms Jones could enjoy a festive meal, and old blankets to keep the shaven dogs warm.

Ms Jones added: “We’re so lucky my neighbours were there to help us or I don’t know what would have happened.”

Anyone with information about the dog – described as tan coloured and possibly a staffie-American bulldog cross – or its owner, who was also walking a smaller black dog, is urged to contact Staffordshire Police by calling 101, quoting the incident number 817 of December 21.

- Text 2

The Bad Girl

Mrs. W. K. Clifford

She was always called the bad girl, for she had once, when she was very little, put out her tongue at the postman. She lived alone with her grandmother and her three brothers in the cottage beyond the field, and the girls in the village took no notice of her. The bad girl did not mind this, for she was always thinking of the cuckoo clock. The clock stood in one corner of the cottage, and every hour a door opened at the top of its face, and a little cuckoo came out and called its name just the same number of times that the clock ought to have struck, and called it so loudly and in so much haste that the clock was afraid to strike at all. The bad girl was always wondering whether it was worse for the clock to have a cupboard in its forehead, and a bird that was always hopping in and out, or for the poor cuckoo to spend so much time in a dark little prison. "If it could only get away to the woods," she said to herself, "who knows but its voice might grow sweet, and even life itself might come to it!" She thought of the clock so much that her grandmother used to say—

"Ah, lassie, if you would only think of me sometimes!" But the bad girl would answer—

"You are not in prison, granny dear, and you have not even a bee in your bonnet, let alone a bird in your head. Why should I think of you?"

One day, close by the farm, she saw the big girls from the school gathering flowers.

"Give me one," she said; "perhaps the cuckoo would like it." But they all cried, "No, no!" and tried to frighten her away. "They are for the little one's birthday. To-morrow she will be seven years old," they said, "and she is to have a crown of flowers and a cake, and all the afternoon we shall play merry games with her."

"Is she unhappy, that you are taking so much trouble for her?" asked the bad girl.

"Oh, no; she is very happy: but it will be her birthday, and we want to make her happier."

"Why?"

"Because we love her," said one;

"Because she is so little," said another;

"Because she is alive," said a third.

"Are all things that live to be loved and cared for?" the bad girl asked, but they were too busy to listen, so she went on her way thinking; and it seemed as if all things round—the birds, and bees, and the rustling leaves, and the little tender wild flowers, half hidden in the grass—answered, as she went along—

"Yes, they are all to be cared for and made happier, if it be possible."

"The cuckoo clock is not alive," she thought. "Oh, no; it is not alive," the trees answered; "but many things that do not live have voices, and many others are just sign-posts, pointing the way."

"The way! The way to what, and where?"

"We find out for ourselves;—we must all find out for ourselves," the trees sighed and whispered to each other.

As the bad girl entered the cottage, the cuckoo called out its name eleven times, but she did not even look up. She walked straight across to the chair by the fireside, and kneeling down, kissed her granny's hands. 

PASSIVE VOICE SENTENCES FROM THE TEXT ABOVE WITH THE TENSES:

1. Woman’s plea after dogs are attacked. (simple present)
2. her two rescue dogs were viciously attacked by another animal – leaving one needing surgery. (simple past)
3. Ms Jones’ cries were heard by her neighbours who rushed to her aid (simple past0
4. But as soon as Pepper was freed (simple past)
5. Both dogs have been prescribed antibiotics and pain killers (perfect simple present)
6. Ms Jones was forced to cancel her plans (simple past)
7. Anyone with information about the dog – described as tan coloured and possibly a staffie-American bulldog cross – or its owner, who was also walking a smaller black dog, is urged to contact Staffordshire Police by calling 101, quoting the incident number 817 of December 21. (simple past)
8. She was always called the bad girl, for she had once (simple past)
9. She walked straight across to the chair by the fireside (simple present)