Pensieve Active and Passive Voice Rules: Verbs can either have active or passive voice.

An active sentence has a subject that is performing an action. A passive sentence, which must contain a transitive verb (an action verb with a direct object), has a subject that is being acted upon. Altering a sentence in this way requires the use of a form of be and then the past participle of the action verb. Appropriate situations in which to use the passive voice are when trying to avoid placing blame and when trying to victimize the subject. Examples: arry approached the strange, large bowl in the middle of the room. ( arry, the subject is clearly ta!ing action. "his is an active sentence.) "he pensieve had been left out. ("he pensieve, the grammatical subject of the sentence, is submissive to the action of something else# it is passive.) Exercise: Identify the passive sentences or clauses in the paragraphs below. Rewrite each one to be in active voice instead. arry stared at the pensieve, breathing shallowly, as he inched closer to it. "he pensieve had been used by him a number of times before but never under such curious circumstances. $n %nape&s last moments of life, his memories were given to arry by %nape. arry now stood in front of the pensieve, bracing himself for whatever it was he might see. As he plunged into %nape&s memories, the reasoning behind many things arry never understood before was revealed. e watched as young %everus fell in love with 'ily (vans, arry&s mother. As Voldemort rose to power, %nape joined him. owever, 'ily&s family was targeted by Voldemort, and %everus& allegiance was sworn to )umbledore if he would help prevent 'ily&s death. arry finally understood why )umbledore trusted %nape for so many years. *e+t, )umbledore e+plained to %nape that he must be !illed by him. arry learned, too, that he had accidentally been made a orcru+ by Voldemort. And arry !new that the orcru+es must all be destroyed by powerful magic. "hen, )umbledore was !illed by %nape. arry had seen it happen in real life, but his sadness was enhanced by his new !nowledge of %nape&s loyalties. arry came out of the pensieve. e !new what he had to do.

Answer Key: arry stared at the pensieve, breathing shallowly, as he inched closer to it. "he pensieve had been used by him a number of times before but never under such curious circumstances. $n %nape&s last moments of life, his memories were given to arry by %nape. arry now stood in front of the pensieve, bracing himself for whatever it was he might see. As he plunged into %nape&s memories, the reasoning behind many things arry never understood before was revealed. e watched as young %everus fell in love with 'ily (vans, arry&s mother. As Voldemort rose to power, %nape joined him. owever, 'ily&s family was targeted by Voldemort, and %everus& allegiance was sworn to )umbledore if he would help prevent 'ily&s death. arry finally understood why )umbledore trusted %nape for so many years. *e+t, )umbledore e+plained to %nape that he must be !illed by him. arry learned, too, that he had accidentally been made a orcru+ by Voldemort. And arry !new that the orcru+es must all be destroyed by powerful magic. "hen, )umbledore was !illed by %nape. arry had seen it happen in real life, but his sadness was enhanced by his new !nowledge of %nape&s loyalties. arry came out of the pensieve. e !new what he had to do.

,.

e had used the pensieve a number of times before-

.. $n his last moments of life, %nape gave his memories to arry. /. -%nape&s memories revealed the reasoning behind many things arry never understood before. 0. owever, Voldemort targeted 'ily&s family-

1. -%everus swore his allegiance to )umbledore if he would help prevent 'ily&s death. 2. -he must !ill him. 3. -Voldemort had accidentally made him a orcru+. 4. -powerful magic must destroy all the orcru+es. 5. "hen, %nape !illed )umbledore. ,6. -his new !nowledge of %nape&s loyalties enhanced his sadness.