<html><span lang="EN-GB" style='line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><p style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 16.8pt; vertical-align: top;"><br></p><span style="color: black;"><p style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 16.8pt; vertical-align: top;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style='line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;'><font color="#000000">We use the passive because, in English, we often place the most important part of a sentence at the beginning. Consider these two sentences which give the same information:</font></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style='line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;'><font color="#000000"> </font></span></b></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 16.8pt; vertical-align: top;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> <br></font></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 35.45pt; text-indent: -14.15pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style='line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;'><font color="#000000">1. "The storm damaged my roof last night." [active] This is part of a conversation about a storm. The storm is the focus of the conversation so it is placed at the beginning of the sentence.</font></span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style='line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;'><font color="#000000"> </font></span></b></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 16.8pt; vertical-align: top;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> <br></font></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 35.45pt; text-indent: -14.15pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style='line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;'><font color="#000000">2. "My roof </font><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 204);">was damaged</span><font color="#000000"> in the storm last night." [passive] Here, the topic of conversation is the roof. The roof didn't 'do' anything but it is placed at the beginning of the sentence because the speaker wants to focus on it.</font></span></b></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 16.8pt; vertical-align: top;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> <br></font></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style='line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;'><font color="#000000"> </font></span></b><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"><br></font></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style='color: rgb(0, 0, 204); line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;'>Note that</span></b><b><span lang="EN-GB" style='color: red; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></b></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; line-height: 16.8pt; vertical-align: top;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> <br></font></p><p style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><b><