Question

Highlight one passive voice sentence in each paragraph. There are four total.

1) My friend Lily loves summertime. She enjoys walking through the creek and splashing the water on scorching days. In fact, many fish are usually found by her as she wades through the murky water. After examining and admiring them, she always makes a point to return them to their natural habitat.
(2) Matt goes to the park every day after school. Because his family does not have a large backyard, he needs a place to walk his dog, a Siberian husky. His husky's name is Shadow. Shadow needs exercise on a daily basis, so taking walks at the park is important for him. Plus, long walks are enjoyed by Shadow .
(3) Last summer, John traveled to New York. He was driven around town by a cab driver named Martin . Martin made some crazy turns while driving. But that was not the scariest part of John's trip! John also rode the subway, but the power went out. He had to sit on the train for four hours while a repair crew worked to fix the train.
(4) Dolphins are my favorite animal. They seem so friendly and cute. Even though I have never swam with a dolphin before, I have seen them at the aquarium. I observed them all day long when my class went on a field trip there last year. The dolphins were fed and carefully handled by the trainers . Watching the trainers made me want to become a veterinarian so that I can work with animals when I grow up.

Answer 1

We can say that a sentence is in passive voice when the subject of the phrase is also the receptor of the action, in contrast with the active voice where the subject executes the action.

In the first paragraph the passive voice sentence is "Many fish are usually found by her", the subject is "many fish" but the action is done by "her" (Lily).

In the second paragraph the passive voice sentence is "Long walks are enjoyed by Shadow", notice that in the active form, the sentence would be "Shadow enjoys long walks" but in the passive form the subject is the object of the sentence, in this case "long walks".

In the third paragraph the passive voice sentence is "He was driven around town by a cab driver named Martin", again, Martin is the one who executes the action (driving John around town), so in the passive voice, the subject is "He" (who receives the action).

In the last paragraph the passive voice sentence is "The dolphins were fed and carefully handled by the trainers", The subject is "The dolphins" and they are receiving the action (being fed by the trainers).