Enunciado

Contexto y objetivos de la tarea

Contexto:

Mediante las actividades propuestas en esta tarea podrás observar y comprender el uso de la voz pasiva en inglés, sobre todo en el contexto periodístico, al mismo tiempo que practicarás la expresión escrita y oral a partir de la redacción de tu propio artículo. 

En esta tarea aprenderás a:

  • Reflexionar sobre el uso y formación de las oraciones en voz pasiva en inglés.
  • Redactar una noticia en la que se respete su esquema, las normas de cohesión y coherencia con un uso correcto de conectores y corrección gramatical y léxica.
  • Crear un vídeo de noticias con una estructura clara organizado de forma coherente y utilizando las estructuras discursivas y gramaticales adecuadas para cumplir con la tarea propuesta.
  • Poner en práctica los conocimientos adquiridos a lo largo de las distintas unidades. 

Descripción de la tarea

The news

If you read the headlines of an English newspaper, you will find that a lot of them use the passive voice.

We have to remember that the passive voice is used in English when:

1.    The actor is unknown.

      The cave paintings of Lascaux were made in the Upper Old Stone Age. [We don’t know who made them.]

2.    The actor is irrelevant.

      An experimental solar power plant will be built in the Australian desert. [We are not interested in who is building it.]

3.    You want to be vague about who is responsible.

       Mistakes were made. [Common in bureaucratic writing!]

4.    You are talking about a general truth.

      Rules are made to be broken. [By whomever, whenever.]

5.    You want to emphasize the person or thing acted on.

      Insulin was first discovered in 1921 by researchers at the University of Toronto.

Let’s have a look at these headlines from The Guardian (2020/10/26)

a)   Opinion: The myth of the 'efficient' private sector has been busted by Covid.

b)   Life and style: Tree of the week: ‘They say this oak was used for hangings’.

c)    Culture: Sarah Sze's cosmic constellation: 'It could be dashed away in a moment.

d)   UK: Stowaways (have been) held as special forces gain control of oil tanker off Isle of Wight.

Nota: Hay que tener en cuenta que en muchos titulares los verbos auxiliares se omiten por razón de espacio. Si os fijáis en el último titular, “Stowaways held as special forces gain control of oil tanker off Isle of Wight”, a primera vista parece que el verbo es un past simple. Sin embargo, si reflexionamos, nos daremos cuenta que el ‘sujeto’ de la oración ‘Stowaways' NO es el sujeto activo, no es quien realiza la acción, por lo tanto, si escribimos el titular ‘correctamente sería: “Stowaways have been held (by the police) as special forces gain control of oil tanker off Isle of Wight”. La policía detuvo a los polizones.

ACTIVITY

1)  Go to a newspaper web page and find 4 headlines which use the passive voice. Here you some of the most commons English newspapers.

  • In United Kingdom: The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph, The Independent
  • In the U.S.: The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today 

2)  Write the headlines here. Add the auxiliary verb (if necessary) and underline de verb. If you cannot find any headline, make it up.

  • Headline 1:
  • Headline 2:
  • Headline 3:
  • Headline 4:

3)  Now, think about a piece of news and write an article about it (around 120-150 words). Be as creative as possible using your own words and don’t forget to include:

  • Some passive sentences and underline them in your article.
  • Present perfect for breaking news to announce what has happened.
  • Past simple to describe the details.
  • If you want you can use reported speech to report what people involved in the news have said.

4)  Once you have written the texts, then it’s time to make a video.

Imagine you are the anchorman/woman of a TV News program. Record a video giving the news you wrote in the previous activity. You can add some photos and images to make it more attractive.

Once you have recorded your video, upload it to your account Google or Dropbox account. If you don't have one ask your teacher how you can send it.

Pega aquí tu enlace del vídeo:

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