Identifying

Below is a brief exercise in identifying passive voice constructions. Read each sentence below. If you think that it contains a passive voice construction, click YES; if you think that it does not contain a passive voice construction, click NO.

1. The first speedometer was built by Charles Babbage. YES NO

2. Charles Babbage also developed the logical structure of the computers that we use today. YES NO

3. Before the Industrial Revolution, textiles were manufactured by skilled spinners and weavers. YES NO

4. In 1767, the first spinning jenny was invented by James Hargreaves. YES NO

5. After that, textiles could be manufactured in great quantities. YES NO

6. In 1793, Eli Whitney built a machine that would clean the seeds out of green cotton. YES NO

7. Unfortunately, Whitney's machine was stolen from his carriage house one night. YES NO

8. While US soldiers were fighting the War of 1812, Eli whitney was mass-producing flawless precision rifles. YES NO

9. Gold was found in California in 1849. YES NO

10. The Pony Express was established in 1860 by three California tycoons. YES NO

11. In 1836, Samuel F.B. Morse assembled his first electromagnetic telegraph machine. YES NO

12. In 1837, a dot-dash system for sending messages by wire was developed by Alfred Vail. YES NO

13. Vail's dot-dash system for sending messages came to be called the 'Morse' Code. YES NO

14. For 150 years, The Du Pont company has produced high-quality dynamite. YES NO

15. To this day, high-quality dynamite is produced by the Du Pont company. YES NO

16. The first census in the United States was conducted in 1790. YES NO

17. The very first electric tabulating machine was devised by Herman Hollerith. YES NO

18. The Hollerith tabulating machine was used by several countries for the purpose of conducting a national census. YES NO

19. In the early 1900s, most of the teletypewriters in the United States were built by American Telegraph and Telephone Company. YES NO

20. The first electronic computer was built by Thomas Flowers in England in 1945. YES NO

21. Most automobiles in the United States are built by General Motors, Ford Motor Company, or Chrysler Corporation. YES NO