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to-infinitive (personal construction) – He is believed to be a liar. It +passive + that-clause
(impersonal construction) – It is believed that he is a liar.
 We use be + past participle or have been + past participle after modal verbs (will, can, may
etc). He can’t repair the lock. – The lock can’t be repaired.
 In passive questions with who/ whom/which we do not omit by. Ex.: Who gave him this
book? – Who were he given this book by?

14 Put the verbs in brackets into the correct passive form.

1 Companies began making oil lamps that were brighter that candles, lasted longer, and
_____easily _____by an errant wind (not/blow).
2 The sample _____near a creek that flowed through the woods of Crawford and Venango
counties in northwestern Pennsylvania (collect).
3 After examining the oil sample, Bissell _____that refined rock oil would burn as cleanly and
safely as any of the oils available at the time, including whale oil (convince).
4 Smith, a blacksmith and an experienced brine-well driller, _____to most everyone as Uncle
Billy (know).
5 A replica of the original Drake well; it _____in 1945 on the original site of the well (build).
6 The first successful well _____in 1866 (drill).
7 It ______a great success and prompted the drilling of many more wells (consider).
8 He _____that oil and gas lay below Spindletop about 1,000 feet (300 metres) deep (convince).
9 The Lucas well _____to have flowed about 2 million gallons (8,000 cubic metres) of oil per day
(estimate).

15 Rewrite the following sentences in the passive.
1 A drilling rig drills hole in the ground.
2 Masts and derricks support the great weight of the drilling tools.
3 The rig crew raises long lengths of pipes during the drilling process.
4 Whether working on a rig or merely visiting it, everyone must wear personal protective
equipment, or PPE for short.
5 Rig workers also wear gloves to protect their hands.
6 Drake and Smith had drilled the hole to a depth of about 69 feet.
7 Drake and Smith then built a drilling rig.
8 At Spindletop, the Hamil’s used water as a drilling fluid.
9 The wall cake stabilized the sand and kept it from caving in.
10 Cable-tool rigs drilled a lot of wells before being supplanted by rotaries.
11 Colonel Drake and Uncle Billy used a steam-powered cable-tool rig to drill the Oil Creek site.

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