UNIT 2

Language in use
Passive voice in the present tense
The passive voice focuses on the thing or person who
Activity 11
receives the action of the verb. To use the passive voice in Fill in the blanks to the following sentences with the correct
the present tense, use “be” + past participle of the verb. tense of the verb in parenthesis.
Examples:
Water is polluted by chemical waste. 1. Many people in El Salvador ___ trash in the
Children are affected by contaminated water. streets. (throw)
Contaminated water is drunk by people in the
2. Most of the trash in El Salvador is ___ in the cities.
community.
(produce)
Trash is dumped in the rivers.
3. The drainage system in the city is ___ with trash.
(clog)

9 Activity 4. The most contaminated rivers are ___ in the city.

(find)
5. San Salvador ___ tons of trash every day. (produce)
Write the past participle for the following verbs.
1. exploit
2. produce What for?
3. find
4. lose The overuse of the passive voice or use of the passive
voice in long and complicated sentences can cause
5. pollute readers to lose interest or to become confused. In
6. see order to avoid this and make it easier for your readers
it is always important not over use it.
7. throw
8. treat
9. check
10. protect

10 Activity

Unscramble the words to make sentences in the passive voice.

1. streets/ thrown/ trash/ is/ in/ the
2. seen/ bottles/ at/ plastic/ are/ beach/ the
3. air/ lead/ air/ is/ contaminated/ found/ in
4. friendly/ countries/ in/ products/ environmentally/
made/ are/ industrial

Glossary: Clog: to become obstructed.

Dumped: to get rid of. Drainage system: a complex pipe or channel system in which liquid is drawn off.
Environmentally friendly: that it is safe for the people and the environment.

206 English - Tenth Grade VERSIÓN PRELIMINAR


Don’t forget!
The subject of a passive sentence is still the main
character of the sentence, but something else does the
action.
For example:
The passive voice would say: The highest amount of
pollution in the world is found in the United States.
The active voice would say: The United States
generates more pollution than anywhere in the world.
Write five common ways that people in your community
contribute to environmental problems. Write in
complete sentences.
12 Activity
Change the following sentences to the passive voice.
1. People in the rural areas drink contaminated water.
2. Old buses pollute the air.
3. El Salvador uses the Lempa River to create energy.
4. Salvadoran people use a lot of plastic containers.
5. The Salvadoran Salvador government protects the
El Impossible Park.
VERSIÓN PRELIMINAR
UNIT 2
Hands on! 2B
It is not a good idea to do community projects
alone. When you include people in your
community project, it allows them to learn
how to develop their own projects in the future.
Write a list of groups and committees in your
community that would be interested in helping
your reforestation project. Who from that list
is the best choice for your project? Sometimes
it depends on your location. If you are going to
plant trees at a school, a group of youth would be
good to work with. The next step is to prepare
a short oral presentation explaining how this
project will help environmental and health issues
in order to convince others to work with you.
Activity 13
Lesson core
In this lesson, vocabulary related to pollutants
was introduced. Now you can understand what
pollutants are and which ones are manmade. You
are able to use the passive voice to describe issues
related to pollution and can scan internet articles
that cover environmental concepts and compose
grammatically correct paragraphs regarding
environmental concerns and solutions.
Tenth Grade - English 207
UNIT 2

Self evaluation
Choose the letter or letters that best answer each question.

1 Which of the following pollutants are

found in water? 3 What is the past participle for the
verb “drink”?
a) drinks
a) seashells
b) oil b) drinked
c) nitrates c) drunk
d) sand d) drinker

2 Which of the following machines

produce carbon dioxide? 4 What is the name of the phenomenon
that makes the Earth overheat?
a) refrigerator a) the plant house effect
b) washing machine b) the greenhouse effect
c) computer c) the heated house effect
d) cars d) the gardenhouse effect

4. b 3. c 2. d 1.b, c Answers:

RECYCLING IN SWITZERLAND
By some measures, Switzerland is the
greenest nation in the world. It recycles
over fifty percent of all household waste.
Switzerland is proud of its recycling efforts.
Glass and paper are just some of the things
they refuse to throw away. The success of
Switzerland comes from their organization skills.
There are bottle banks at every supermarket, with
separate openings for clear, green and brown
glass. Every town has a free paper collection
once a month, and that does not mean just old
newspapers. Most people recycle everything
made of cardboard or paper, from cereal boxes
to old telephone bills. Switzerland is a very
environmentally friendly country.

208 English - Tenth Grade VERSIÓN PRELIMINAR

 Unit Two
What are the effects of deforestation?
Getting started!
Do you think that our climate has been changing over
the past 15 years?
Which animal species are endangered in El Salvador?
What causes floods and landslides in El Salvador?
Achievement indicators
I can successfully identify main ideas related to natural disasters
from different audio sources.
I can coherently develop a 10 to 12-line paragraph from
a topic sentence and supporting facts on how to solve an
environmental problem.
Conversation and more
Listen to and read the following conversation. Look up
any new words in a dictionary.
A: So what’s up, Jose? The soccer game is supposed to
start in about an hour and I don’t see you ready yet.
What’s wrong?
B: Well, I don’t think I’ll be able to go this time. It
looks like it’s going to rain and with my house
being on the edge of this cliff, I’ll have to put a
plastic tarp down to stop erosion. The rainy season
is not fun for me.
A: I can see that. I don’t remember having this
problem twenty years ago.
B: Yeah! That’s true. I remember this neighborhood
was a forest with all kinds of birds and animals. It
was really awesome!
A: The rapid growth of the city has made the
construction companies very busy. They have
been destroying forests to build roads.
B: This problem with my house doesn’t let me sleep at
night. I’m really worried about this situation.
Glossary:
Edge: a rim or brink.
Tarp: a waterproofed canvas.
VERSIÓN PRELIMINAR
Lesson 3
I can talk about how environmental problems are being
solved with the correct use of the present perfect continuous.
I can describe natural disasters with appropriate vocabulary and
grammatical accuracy.
A: But, listen, something you could do is plant a
couple of trees to tighten the soil up. Besides that
you can get fruit and shade from them.
B: Hey! That sounds good, why didn’t I think of that!
That’s what I’ll do.
A: All right. I have to get going because the game is
about to start.
B: Ok, have fun and thank you for the advice. You’ll
get free mangoes from my trees.
Activity 1
Answer the following questions according to the previous
conversation.
1. Why isn’t Jose going to the soccer game?
2. Does the conversation take place in the wet season
or the dry season?
3. What is Jose going to do instead of going to the
game? Why?
4. Have they always had that problem?
5. What was the neighborhood like 20 years ago?
Plant: to place or set in the ground to grow.
Tighten: to fasten firmly in place.
Tenth Grade - English 209
UNIT 2

Enrich your vocabulary

Read the following words. Do any of these things exist in
El Salvador?

rain forest
extinction
biodiversity
exotic timber
profits
desertification
oil erosion
flooding
climate change

Don’t forget!
2 Activity
Deforestation is not something that only happens in
the rain forest. It is also happening right here in El
Fill in the blanks with the words shown in the box below. Salvador. In fact, deforestation is one of El Salvador’s
main environmental issues today. El Salvador is the
biodiversity exotic timber flooding second most deforested nation in Latin America after
Haiti. Almost 85% of its forest cover has disappeared
rain forest profit desertificaion since the 1960s and the country had one of the highest
soil erosion climate change extinction deforestation rates (4.6 percent annually) in the world
during the 1990s.
1. __ means the amount of money gained in business
deals after all expenses have been subtracted.
2. __ means the degradation of land in arid and dry
sub-humid areas, resulting primarily from natural
activities and influenced by climatic variations.
Activity 3
3. __ is trees or wooded land considered as a source Answer the following questions with your own information.
of expensive and rare wood.
1. Have you done anything to try to stop
4. __ means a dense, evergreen forest that has heavy
rainfall all year round. deforestation? What?
5. __ means the process of the wearing away of soil 2. Have you noticed that deforestation has been
by water, ice or wind. affecting people in your community? How?
6. __ means the number and variety of organisms 3. Do you have trees near your home? Do you
found within a specified geographic region. remember how heavily wooded your neigborhood
7. __ means an overflowing of water onto a place that was 15 years ago?
is usually dry. 4. Can you think about a natural disaster in El Salvador
8. __ means the fact of becoming extinct or that was caused by deforestation? Which one?
dying out. 5. How do you think disforestation affects biodiversity
9. __ means the change in the world’s climate. in El Salvador?

210 English - Tenth Grade VERSIÓN PRELIMINAR