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Vocabulary + passive: the little tree 2/2 - English lesson

An easy AND fundamental lesson... but especially a difficult exercise (almost a 3 star one!) because it's particularly long and you MUST do it calmly, making as many pauses - and saving them - as you progress. The ideal situation would be for you to take as much time to think and do it ... as it took me to make it!

It's inspired by a tale by Hans Christian Andersen; it may be less famous than some others...

1) The Passive form, the bases:

In the passive form, the action is endured whereas in the active form, the subject is the actor and does the action.

Active form:

The wood-cutters have cut the trees.

Subject Verb Predicate

in the

present perfect

The passive form is built with the SUBJECT (enduring the action)+ the AUXILIARY of the passive (BE) in various tenses and modes + the PAST PARTICIPLE of the verb.

The little tree has been cut (by the wood-cutters)

:the Subject + BE+ past participle Agent

endures

the action. introduced by BY

In the passive form, the direct object complement (Predicate) becomes the SUBJECT of the passive form and the person doing the action endured by the subject is the AGENT, introduced by BY. This agent is seldom mentioned in the British sentence (except if it's necessary to the understanding of the sentence.)

- Nobody cut the little tree.=> The little tree wasn't cut.

The passive is used very frequently in English: it's used in all the tenses and modes; the use of the tenses in the passive is the same as in the active form (the time-markers will help!)

The wood-cutters evaluate the trees.=> The trees are evaluated... ( regularly, because the trees must be cut when ready)

The wood-cutters are cutting the trees.=> The trees are being cut... ( just now because they are big enough.)

The wood-cutters cut the trees yesterday.=> The trees were cut... yesterday.

The wood-cutters will cut the trees tomorrow...=> The trees will be cut... if they're big enough.

The different tenses are possible! Be conscious that if you happen to think in French, or in any other language and want to translate from your mother language mentally, (which you must NEVER DO), the different tenses NEVER CHANGE between the active and the passive forms.

IMPORTANT REMINDER! In English, the passive form, (as well as many other constructions), NEEDS the past participle , which means ... a perfect knowledge of the irregular verbs! We can never repeat it enough!

2) VOCABULARY:

Light and darkness, flames and fire...

To light (up) (I lit, lit)	= supply with lights	To lighten	= become less dark
To illuminate	= decorate with lights	bright	= brilliant
To twinkle	= to shine with a flickering light	dark	= little or no light
To shine (I shone, shone)	= bright with light	brightness	/ darkness
To dazzle	= to blind with light	dazzling	= blinding
To be radiant	= shining	pitch dark/ black	= extremely dark
To sparkle	= to gleam with light	a spark	= a fiery particle
To blaze	= to be on fire	a blaze/ a fire	= a violent fire
To drown	= put under the water	scorching hot	= burning hot

Go for it!

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Finally, one day, the wood-cutters arrived again walking in thick snow. How happy the tree was! At last, but very acutely, even painfully the tree by the axes. He imagined the glory that was expecting him. How happy he was! When he into a large pot, he started regretting the breeze and agitation he in his forest... But well, once he and when he this momentary inconvenience, a brilliant destiny was to be his!

The following morning, he in the middle of a and lit room. Servants surrounded him and put ornaments and lots of sweets on his branches; many presents, big and small, at his foot. He was feeling more and more and more and more important too. Later, children gathered around him to sing beautiful songs, adults told them stories, and he was sure all to him. He was so proud! Later, the kids rushed onto the presents and went to play with their new toys. He no longer felt he as the king of the gathering, the centre of interest but he still had great hopes for the future…
The following morning, the servants came again. After a few minutes, all the ornaments down and back into their boxes. A few hours later, the naked tree was taken up to the attic and realized in the dark. Soon came and into his branches tickling him and listening to his stories. One day, a servant came to take him out, at last... Now, an extraordinary life would begin...

Bright sunshine in the yard and... he onto a heap on wooden furniture. One of the kids playing there noticed that the golden star at the top and stripped it off him.
A match, a flame, and the full of a raging : heat and pain and the strange sensation of losing oneself, of disappearing into the atmosphere and becoming smoke and a cloud and meeting his old friends the wind and the sun… Then the certainty of NOT being Nothing, or Nobody… but just being Different! Most of all, he remembered what he then : “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything … and no matter how insignificant you are, you are still useful to the Universe. “
Less traumatizing than most tales… and even than Life itself, isn’t it?

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