2. Disneyland was opened to the public in 1955

Once you have understood the passive voice in the Simple Present, using the passive in the Simple past is quite easy, so let's take a look.
Icono IDevice Curiosity
The Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland.
By SolarSurfer. Public domain.

Disneyland is an American theme park in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of The Walt Disney Company. It was dedicated with a press preview on July 17, 1955, and opened to the general public July 18, 1955. Disneyland holds the distinction of being the only theme park to be designed and built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney himself. As of 2005, the park has been visited by more than 515 million guests since it opened, including presidents, royalty and other heads of state. In 1998, the theme park was re-branded "Disneyland Park" to distinguish it from the larger Disneyland Resort complex. In 2007, more than 14,800,000 people visited the park making it the second most visited park in the world, behind the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.

The dedication to all Disney magic kingdom-style parks begins with the phrase "To all who come to this happy place, welcome ..." with the exception of Magic Kingdom Park in Florida. The dedication there begins "Walt Disney World is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney ..."

Taken from Wikipedia.

Watch this video about Disneyland.

 


 

 


Icono IDevice Reading activity
1) Disneyland is an American theme park in Anaheim, California, owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts division of The Walt Disney Company.
2) It was dedicated with a press preview on July 17, 1955, and opened to the general public July 18, 1955.
3) Disneyland holds the distinction of being the only theme park to be designed and built under the direct supervision of Walt Disney himself. As of 2005 ...
4) In 1998, the theme park was re-branded "Disneyland Park" to distinguish it from the larger Disneyland Resort complex.

 


Say which two sentences of the four above are passive sentences in simple past.


Icono de iDevice Example exercise: simple past in passive voice

1) Alfred Nobel started the Nobel Prizes.

2) The police arrested the burglar.

3) That dog bit my little sister.

4) Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet.

5) The USA beat Spain in the Olympic basketball final.

 

Rewrite these simple past sentences into the passive voice.

Icono IDevice Importante

Making questions in the passive

Look at these examples:
When was America discovered?    America was discovered in 1492.

Where was the TV invented?  It was invented in Britain.

As the passive uses the verb BE as its auxilary, we simply invert its position with the subject to make a question.

 

America was discovered in 1492.  Was America discovered in 1492?

 

Now look at the examples with who:

Who was Hamlet written by? It was written by Shakespeare.

Who was the TV invented by?  The TV was invented by John Logi Baird.

 

As you can see, when the question is Who, it is at the start of the sentence and then we invert BE and the subject. By is the last word of the phrase. 

 

 


Icono de iDevice Self-assessment
Read the paragraph below about Mark Twain and fill in the gaps with simple past passive verbs.
Notice that Florida is not only an American State but also the name of a city in the state of Missouri.
Twain in his gown for his DLitt degree, awarded to him by Oxford University.
By CharlieHuang. Public domain.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri. His pen name Mark Twain (take) from the mark the sailors made in the rope to measure the depth of the river Mississippi. The word twain is a derivation of two, so they said by the mark twain ...
Many novels (write) by Twain. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (write) by him and it (regard) as the Great American Novel.
The Mississippi river (describe) profoundly as well in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the same as the institution slavery, a theme that he would later include in his writing.
Upon his death he (laud) as the greatest American humorist of his age. He (call) the father of American literature by another famous American writer, William Faulkner.
  

Icono IDevice Important
Passive Sentences with two objects

Rewriting an active sentence with two objects (direct object and indirect object) into the passive voice means that one of the two objects becomes the subject, the other one remains an object. Which object to transform into a subject depends on what you want to focus on:

They gave medals to the winners.

a) The winners were given medals 

b) Medals were given to the winners

 

Remember that the second option (changing an indirect object into a passive subject) doesn't exist in Spanish, so the way to translate both is by using an Impersonal construction:

 

a/b) A los ganadores se les dio medallas



Icono de iDevice Example exercise: passive sentences with two objects

1) The teacher sent her a letter.

2) My friend told me a lie.

3) The waiter brought us the coffee.

 

Rewrite these sentences with two objects in the passive voice.

Icono IDevice Further knowledge

About the use and form of the passive voice with lots of examples.

Here you have some exercises about the passive voice in simple past:

Exercise 1  Exercise 2
  Exercise 3

Learn how to put active sentences with two objects into passive.

Entering fantasyland. It is worth watching!

 


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