☰ Contents · English

Literature and the passive

Lessons 22–23 · 2 lessons · S. Khan, L. Kamalova, L. Jurayev. Teens’ English 8 (English, Grade 8). “O‘qituvchi” Publishing House, Tashkent, 2020
23

First in literature

Textbook: p. 31
GoalPresent and Past Simple Passive: saying who and when works were written; firsts in Uzbek and English literature.
New words
poet; prose · shoir; nasrnovel · romanmasterpiece · asar (shoh asar)translate · tarjima qilmoq
Explanation

In the passive voice the action or its result is more important than who did it. Present Simple Passive: am/is/are + past participle (Books are translated into many languages). Past Simple Passive: was/were + past participle (The Canterbury Tales was written by Chaucer). If we need the doer, we add by. Compare active and passive: Navoi wrote poems → Poems were written by Navoi. Literary facts: Alisher Navoi (1441–1501) wrote in Uzbek and in Persian (under the pen name Foniy) and is seen as the founder of Uzbek literary language; Geoffrey Chaucer (about 1343–1400) wrote The Canterbury Tales; William Shakespeare (1564–1616) wrote many plays and sonnets; Abdulla Qodiriy’s novel Days Gone By is considered the first Uzbek novel (first published in the 1920s).

Worked examples
Navoi’s poems are read in many countries. His long poem collection “Xamsa” was written in the 1480s. The Canterbury Tales was written in English, not in Latin or French. Hamlet was written by Shakespeare around 1600.
Active: Qodiriy wrote Days Gone By. Passive: Days Gone By was written by Qodiriy. Present passive: Navoi’s birthday is celebrated every February in Uzbekistan.
Class activity

“Who wrote it?”: cards with titles (Hamlet, Xamsa, Days Gone By); pupils answer with The book was written by ... .

Practice
1
Passive: Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. → ?
2
Complete: Books ___ (translate) into many languages.
3
Find and fix the mistake: Days Gone By were written by Qodiriy.
4
Why is “Days Gone By” considered important?