UNIT 13 COMPUTER APPLICATIONS

GRAMMAR: PASSIVE VOICE

Tense Active Passive
Simple Present ‘They use two books’ ‘Two books are used’

Present ‘Peter is repairing her car’ ‘Her car is being repaired by Peter’
Continuous
Past simple ‘She broke the papers’ ‘The papers were broken’

Past Continuous ‘She was cooking dinner’ ‘Dinner was being cooked’
‘I have already finished my ‘My project has already been
Present Perfect project’ finished’
‘Many tourists had visited ‘The castle had been visited by
Past Perfect the castle’ many tourist’
Future ‘will’ ‘She will phone us ‘We will be phoned tomorrow’
tomorrow’
‘They are going to make a
Future ‘be going to’ Cake tonight’ ‘A cake is going to be made tonight’

Conditional ‘They would promote her’ ‘She would be promoted’

Modals ‘She should drink more ‘More water should be drunk’

water’

Some verbs such as: ask, give, offer, teach, tell, lend, promise, sell, throw, buy etc. can
have two objects. Then there are two possible passive sentences.

Type of Subject Verb Object Object

sentences
Active sentence Peter gave me two
pens
Passive sentence Two were to me by Peter
pens given
Passive sentence I was given two pens by Peter

We use the passive:

❖ when we are interested in the object: ‘Romeo and Juliet was written by Shakespeare’
❖ when who or what does the action is unknown, unimportant, obvious or ‘people in
general’: ‘My computer is being repaired’
❖ In factual or scientific writing: ‘The sample is placed in a test tube and
heated’

We use “by” when we want to know who does the action.

Task 1: Choose the correct passive verb form to complete the sentences below.

1 We are staying at the hotel because my house ………… redecorated.

was been has being is being

2 The letter ………… a week ago.

has been posted was post was posted
3 We suddenly realised that we ………… There was someone on the roof of the house next to us.
were being watched were watched were been watched

4 All the tickets for the concert …………

have being sold has been sold have been sold

5 When we arrived at the car park, our car wasn't there; it …………
is stolen had been stolen was been stolen

6 Now it's too late. Nothing …………

can to be done can‘t be done can be done

7 Home buyers ………… of potential taxes before buying their house.

are be informed are informed are been informed

8 The negotiations ………… indefinitely.

is postponed were postponed were been postponed

9 When we called, she didn't answer because she ………… for the job.
has been interviewed was interviewed was being interviewed

10 We are sorry about the problem, sir. But don't worry, the mistake ………… right now.
has being corrected was corrected is being corrected

11 English ………… understood in most countries in the world.

is is being has been

12 These photos ………… during the president's last trip to Nigeria.

are taken were taken have been taken

Task 2: Put in the correct form of the verb in Passive into the gaps. Use the verb and the tense given in
brackets.

1 The words ……………………………………………………………………… by the teacher today. (explain / Simple Present)

2 We ………………………………………………………………………… a letter the day before yesterday (send / Simple Past)
3 This car ………………………………………………………………………… It’s too old. (not steal / Future Simple)
4 This Street ………………………………………………………………………… because of snow. (close / Present Perfect)
5 A new restaurant ………………………………………………………………………… next week. (open / be going to)
6 The blue box ………………………………………………………………………… (can/not/see / Simple Present)
7 He ………………………………………………………………………… to the party yesterday. (invite / Simple Past)
8 I …………………………………………………… the book by my friend at the end of the month. (give / Future Simple)
9 The dishes ………………………………………………………………………… (should / not / wash / present)
10 The houses ………………………………………………………………………… by 2014 (paint / Past Perfect)

Task 3: Put these sentences into passive.

1. Young people commit most crimes

Most crimes …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
2. The figures will worry people
People …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
3. The media are going to attack the government
The government ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
4. A special committee is studying the report
The report ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
5. The police arrested a suspect yesterday
A suspect …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..
6. They will probably charge him with murder
He ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..
7. A pop agent discovered me in a music club
I ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..
8. People have used this instrument for years
This instrument ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
9. Her mother is teaching her French
She …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……………
10. You should open the wine about three hours before you use it
The wine …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..
11. Previous climbers had cut steps in the ice
Steps …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………
12. Why didn’t they mend the roof before it fell in?
Why …………………………………. the roof …………………………………………………………………………………………………………?
13. They will say nothing more about the matter
Nothing …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……
14. They showed her the easiest way to do it
She ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…
15. Did you give them your address?
…………………………………………………….………… they ……………………………………………………………………… your address?

PLURAL
Count nouns have two forms: singular and plural.

We usually add –s to make a plural noun. For example: ‘book’ – books’.

We add –es to nouns ending in –s, –ch, –sh, –ss, –x and –o. For example: bus – buses, box – boxes,
potato – potatoes.

When a noun ends in a consonant and –y, we make the plural with –ies. For example: lady – ladies,
city – cities.
 When a noun ends in ‘f’ or ‘fe’, we make the plural with –ves. For example: leaf – leaves,
loaf – loaves, life – lives, wife – wives, knife – knives, wolf – wolves, thief – thieves,
scarf – scarves.
But there are some exceptions such as chef – chefs, giraffe – giraffes, chief – chiefs.

If a noun ends in a vowel and –y, we simply add –s. For example: boy – boys.

Some common nouns have irregular plurals. For example: child – children, foot – feet,
goose – geese, mouse – mice, man – men, woman – women.

Invariable words: some words have the same singular form as they do in the plural. Many of them
are animals: sheep – sheep, deer – deer, fish – fish (If we refer to different species ‘fish’, the plural
of fish is fishes).

Task 1: Put the words in brackets in plural.

1. active ……………………………….. (volcano) 2. African ……………………………….. (elephant)

3. birthday ……………………………….. (wish) 4. blue ……………………………….. (eye)

5. business ……………………………….. (tax) 6. cardboard ……………………………….. (box)

7. champagne ……………………………….. (glass) 8. computer ……………………………….. (game)

9. dirty ……………………………….. (dish) 10. 30,000 ……………………………….. (foot)

11. front-door ……………………………….. (key) 12. green ……………………………….. (tomato)

13. happy ……………………………….. (child) 14. lonely ……………………………….. (person)

15. newborn ……………………………….. (baby) 16. old ……………………………….. (man)

17. sunny ……………………………….. (beach) 18. big ……………………………….. (mouse)

19. nice ……………………………….. (day) 20. sharp ……………………………….. (knife)

Task 2: Fill the gaps with the plural of the words in brackets.

In the forest near Wibble there is a big, dark house. There are lots of ............................... (store) about it.
Two ......................... (lady) live inside. Often you can hear strange ..................... (noise) coming from the
house because they’ve got a lot of ........................... (animal). There are some ........................... (canary),
three ............................... (goose), seventeen .............................. (mouse) and two small ........................
(dog). Last year the canaries had four ......................... (baby). Now it’s very noisy because the canaries sing
all the time! The forest is full of animals, too. There are ...................... (fox) and ........................... (wolf) and
at night you can hear the ......................... (owl) calling. It’s frightening. The wind moves the .........................
(leaf) in the trees and makes a scary noise. Some .............................. (person) say there are ghosts in the
forest.
On day, some ......................... (child) went to the house. They saw one of the ladies. She didn’t have any
....................... (tooth)! She had big ...................... (boot) on her .................. (foot). She shouted at the
children. She thought they were ................. (thief). She threw ......................... (potato) and .........................
(tomato) at them, and they ran away. Be careful! I think the old ladies are .................................. (witch).
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS
ICT, which stands for Information and communications technologies, are becoming crucial in
improving healthcare. They provide more efficient ways of accessing and storing data and they
make the job easier for healthcare professionals who can now focus more on getting their job done
instead of filling thousands of papers.
When it comes to Spain, the development of ICT in the Healthcare sector differs between regions and
even hospitals. While most programs quantify the hospital activity, there are just few that give
more specific information about each department, which could be defined as “micro-managing”.
On one hand, there are two main types of application in a healthcare warehouse:
• Computerised billing in hospitals.
• Billing applications used in healthcare professionals' surgeries.

On the other hand, we have clinical management applications that are used for patient management,
administrative management, diagnosis management, etc.
Some examples are:
• Medical records archiving.
• Patient appointments.
• Waiting list management.
• Admission of patients to the hospital or primary care area.

Useful vocabulary
When approaching ICT’s, you’ll find out that many of them only work in English so, while it’s
fundamental to have some basic knowledge of the language, it’s also important to understand
common words related to technology. Let’s check some of them out:

• Database: All the data held in a computer.

• Firewall: It’s a security device that controls ingoing and outgoing information based on security
protocols set by oneself.
• Hardware: The physical components of a computer.
• Software: Programs used by a computer.
• Resize: Changing the size of a digital file.
• Update: To get the latest version of something, to get something more modern or up to date.
• Mouse: Used to move the cursor on our computer screen.
• Keyboard: Used to write on our computer.
• Shortcut: A quick access to an application or any computer information.
• Printer: A machine used for printing documents or pictures.
• Desktop: The main screen of a computer.