Advanced Writing with English in Use

Unit 2 • Action

2C Processesand systems

1.0 The passive voice

A Here are two explanations of the workings of a fire extinguisher.The first is

froma talk givenby a fireman. The second is from a school text book. The main

stylistic differenceis that the second is impersonal- the words 'I' and 'you'are

not used - and the verbsare oftenin the passive.

Put the verbs in the second textinto the appropriateform. Morethan oneword

may be required. Some of the verbsmaybe participles(stoppingorstopped)

ratherthanfull tenses(werestopping, had beenstopped).The first onehas been

donefor you as an exa mple.

HOW A FIREEXTINGUISHERWORKS

'Thisone,paintedre d , is awat:r-filled fire.

ext ingu is he r. Asyou c a nsee,It s asteel cylI nde r

wit ha ho se c o m ingoutofth e top .ThISleverhe re.

where the h o s ejoin s thecylinder.is what you use

to make it w o rk. Thecyl in de r'sa lmost fu llo f

w ater.andinsi de the w ate r there's acartridgeof

carbon dioxidegas athi ghpressure.

Tomake itwork .yo ujustpulloutt h iss a fe t ypin

hereandsqueezeth e lever.When youpulldown

thele ver. it pushe sapindownwhichmakes ahole

inthecarb o n dioxidecartridge .Andthatletsout

th ecasinto thes p ac eaboveth e wa te rInth e

cyl i n de r.Thegas. w h ic h is sti llo fcourseunder

hi gh p ressure.pushe sdown on the wate ra nd mak e s\

i t go u p thetubeinth emiddle. th roughth e h o s e.

a n do u t thro ug h th eno z zl e at the en d .Theno z zl eIS

s m all e r than thetube , to make thewate rc o m eo u t

faste r.This me an sit'sgoingtosendthewat~rfa r

e no ug hsoyoucanstand backfromth efife.

The CO2-propelled

INaf:er-'illed

'ireeXf:inguisher

Aw ater- tilledfireextinguishercomprisesa

red-painted steelcylinde r (co nnect)

connected to ahose and(control)

______ by an operating lever. The

cylinder (fill) almostto th e top

withw ater.Inside thecylinder is a cart ridge

(co ntain) C02 gas at high

pressure.

When thesafety pin (remove) _

theoperatinglever can (squeeze )

• , pushing apin down to
  (pierce) the C0 2 cartridge. The
  high-pressure gas (release)
  intothespaceabovethe wate rin thecylin der.
  The gas (push) down on the
  w ater,which(force) up the
  dischargetube to a hose (connect)
  ____ _toanozzle,

T he nozzle isnarrowerthan the discharg e

tube, so the speed at which the water (leave)

_ _ _ _ _ _is increased. Thewater

(throw) far enough so that the

operatorcan (stand) back from

the fire.

B Apart from the verbs, thereare other differences between the two texts.

1 Are there any wordsorphrases in the firsttext which would be out of placein

the second?

2 In the seco ndtext, whatwords and structures replace the phrases with the

wordyou?

54 • Types of writing