El Panecillo is a 200-meter-high hill of volcanic-origin, located between southern and central Quito.

Its peak is
at an elevation of 3,016 meters above sea level. According to Juan de Velasco, a Jesuit historian, there was a
temple to the sun on its top which was destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores.
In 1976, the Spanish artist Agustín de la Herrán Matorras was commissioned by the religious order of the
Oblates to build a 45-metre-tall aluminum monument of a Madonna. It was assembled on a high pedestal on
the top of Panecillo by Anibal Lopez. It is made of seven thousand pieces of aluminum. The monument was
inaugurated on March 28, 1976, by the 11th archbishop of Quito, Pablo Muñoz Vega. The monument was
inspired by the famous "Virgen de Quito" (Quito's Madonna) sculpted by Bernardo de Legarda in 1734, which
now decorates the main altar at the Church of St. Francis. "(The above description is based on Wikipedia
under Creative Common License)"

Passive Voice and When to Use It

In English, the subject of a sentence is usually an actor that is doing an action.

For example: “The Spanish conquistadores destroyed the temple.”
In this sentence, The Spanish conquistadores is the actor who did the action (destroyed). The object of the
sentence (the temple) is what receives the action. The sentence is about the subject (The Spanish
conquistadores), which is more important than the object of the verb (the temple). This is an active sentence,
which is also called the active voice.

The Passive Voice: “The temple was destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores.” In a passive sentence, the
situation is the opposite. We move the object of the verb (temple) to the beginning of the sentence, so it can
become the subject. This is how we build a passive sentence:

S + V + O (+ complement)

O + passive V + (by + S) (+ complement)

(passive Verb = to be in original tense + original verb in PP)

Subject (the temple) + TO BE verb (was) * + past participle (destroyed) [+ by actor (the Spanish
conquistadores)]* * ** the phrase by the Spanish conquistadores is optional.

* The auxiliary is in past tense because the verb in the active voice is in past. (Whenever the auxiliary to be is
followed by a verb in past participle you have a passive voice structure).

Why do we use the passive voice?  

1: The object of the verb is more important.

Example: "A body was found in the park." Active voice: "The police found a body in the park."

Which is more important: the police (the subject) or the body (the object)? Answer: The body! That is the surprising
information! And because the object of the sentence is the most important thing, we change the sentence to the passive
voice. We move the object of the verb to the beginning of the sentence so it can become the subject: A body was found
in the park (by the police). The most important thing is the body so it becomes the subject and the first word of a passive
sentence. To write "by the police" becomes optional since that information isn't important.
2: We don't know who the actor is.

Example: "John F. Kennedy was killed in 1963." Active voice: "Someone killed John F. Kennedy in 1963."

We don't know who killed John F. Kennedy so there isn't really a reason to make "someone" the subject. Again, like
reason #1, the object of the verb (John F. Kennedy) is the most important thing.

3: The actor is obvious so you don't need to say it.

Example: "English is spoken in many countries." Active voice: "People speak English in many countries."

When we see the verb speak, we know that we are talking about people. People are the only animals who would be able
to speak a language so is unnecessary to write the actor or agent.

4: You don't want to say who the actor is.

Example: "Unfortunately, a mistake was made." Active voice: "Unfortunately, John made a mistake."

If you are John's friend you will use a passive sentence because it doesn't focus on the actor. By using the passive voice,
we can take the attention away from the actor and just focus on the object that received the action (the mistake) and
the listener doesn't know who to blame. 

Note: You can only use the passive voice with transitive verbs. Transitive verbs, such as eat,
throw, and read, are followed by a direct object. You can eat something, throw something, and read
something. Intransitive verbs, such as happen, come, and die, cry, run, sit are not followed by a
direct object. If there is no object, there won’t be a subject so we cannot have a passive voice. In other words,
if there is no object there is no passive sentence.
Newspaper Headlines - Active or Passive? Decide if the headlines are active or passive. If a
sentence is passive, add the be verb where required. Also, please add punctuation and articles
(a/an/the).

Toronto named 'most youthful' city in world.  

Taylor Swift wins top prize at American Music Awards. 

 World's biggest bookstore sold to developer. 

Two baby baboons on display at Brooklyn zoo.  

 Scottish government reveals independence plan.  

 World's first electric helicopter takes flight in Germany.

Obama elected president for second term. 

 
Mothers asked nearly 300 questions a day.  

2000 workers laid off by (the) Ford Motor company last month.  

Baby Sophia was delivered at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.

Dr. Susan Jones delivered baby Sophia at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.

Answers:
Toronto was/has been named 'the most youthful' city in the world.  

Taylor Swift wins the top prize at the American Music Awards. 

 The world's biggest bookstore was/has been sold to a developer. 

Two baby baboons are on display at the Brooklyn zoo.  

 The Scottish government reveals an/their independence plan.  

 The world's first electric helicopter takes flight in Germany.

Obama was/has been elected president for a second term. 

 
Mothers are asked nearly 300 questions a day.  

2000 workers were laid off by (the) Ford motor company last month.  

Dr. Susan Jones delivered baby Sophia at 3:30 a.m. yesterday.