article with 5 passive voice

Scuttle ball. Soccer for Ants

For those few days the big hollow tree was buzzing with activity. It was time for the Scuttle ball World Championship. Scuttle ball was soccer for ants; and it was definitely their favorite sport. Ants of all shapes and sizes, from every nook and cranny in the world, had arrived. There were teams of red ants, black ants, flying ants, termites... and even some bizarre multicolored ants. And, of course,  loyal band of supporters was had by every team. As the tournament went on the excitement only increased, and the supporters got more and more devoted to their own particular team.
Before long, the inevitable happened. In the stand a black ant shouted "Midgets!" at a group of red ants. The red ants answered with a bit of pushing and shoving, and almost instantly the whole thing turned into a great big ball of legs, jaws, and antennae. In the end, thousands of ants were in hospital, and the tournament had to be suspended.
No one can deny that there's almost always trouble when different kinds of ant get together. But this time things had gone too far, so a meeting was called by the Ant Elders. The matter was discussed by the Elders  for days, trying to reach a solution which would end this kind of trouble once and for all. Finally, a decision was made by them:
"We believe that ants of all teams are equal. It seems, though, that this tournament is being used to try to prove which kind of ant is the best. We know that all the different types of ant are indeed pretty impressive. Therefore, we say that comparisons should not be made, and that from this day on every Scuttleball team will be made up of different kinds of ant".
That decision caused quite a commotion, but soon new teams are started to be formed by the crowds of ants, mixed teams, and each ant was free to choose which team he would support. The tension on the terraces was reduced, and the ants began to see that they could enjoy the matches without so much arguing.

examples of active and passive voice in a sentence

Active: Simple Present
The movie bores Jack.
Passive: Simple Present
Jack is bored by the movie.

Active: Simple Past
The movie fascinated Jack. 
Passive: Simple Past
Jack was fascinated by the movie.

Active: Present Continuous
June is helping Su and Ling.
Passive: Present Continuous
Su and Ling are being helped by June.

Active: Past Continuous
They were cleaning the bedroom.
Passive: Past Continuous
The bedroom  was being cleaned by them.

Active: Present Perfect
Jack has mailed the gifts.
Passive: Present Perfect
The gifts have been mailed by Jack

active and passive voice

What do you mean voice?

In English grammar, voice doesn't mean the sound you make when you speak. It shows whether the subject of a sentence is doing the action, or having the action done to it.
If the subject is the person performing the action, we use the active voice.
When we're not bothered about who or what carried out the action of the verb ,we use the passive voice. In other words, the subject of the sentence refers to someone or something who does not perform the action but is affected by the action of the verb.

Active Voice	Passive Voice
I cleaned the office while you were out.	The office was cleaned while you were out.
Paris Hilton switched on the Christmas lights.	The lights were switched on

 
We say things in the active voice when we want to show who or what has done something.
In the active voice the agent (the person or thing that does something) is the subject of the sentence.

For example:
"She cleaned the office." (Who cleaned the office? She did=the subject)
"He crashed into my car." (Who crashed into my car? He did=the subject)

The active voice uses fewer words than the passive voice.
The passive voice is used when the subject of a sentence is the person or thing affected by the action of the sentence.
The passive voice may use any tense of the verb to be:-

to be		past participle
is / are / am was / were	(present simple) (past simple)	finished.
is being / are being /am being was being / were being	(present continuous) (past continuous)	cleaned.
has been / have been had been	(present perfect) (past perfect)	sent.
will be	(future)	tired.

We particularly use the passive voice when we don't know or aren't bothered exactly who has done something. This is called passive without agent where the recipient of the action becomes the subject.

For example:
"The office was cleaned." (What was cleaned? - The office=the subject)

We often use the passive to report what someone has said, but we want to avoid telling anyone who said it.

For example:
"I was told you weren't coming."

Sometimes it is used in order to deliberately avoid saying who did something, or more often who's to blame for something. Either because you don't know, or because you don't want to say. You'll often see it used in politics, the business world, or in any other activity involving bureaucracy.
"The civilian was shot." (Who was shot? The civilian=the subject)
"The report was mislaid." (What was mislaid? The report =the subject)
Sometimes you may want to use the passive voice but wish to mention who carried out the action. This is called passive with agent and the agent is usually introduced with the word by.

For example:
"The office was cleaned by Mrs Smith."

Or you may use a subject such as people, someone, they etc, when you don't know who the agent is.

For example:
"The car was stolen by joyriders."

Be warned though, the passive voice can sound pompous or evasive.

When you can't use the passive

Intransitive verbs cannot be used in the passive. This is because they cannot have objects, and so there is nothing to become the subject of the passive sentence. For example with verbs like die or arrive.