§ 1. The passive: general information. Active voice and passive voice.

In the active, the subject of the verb is the person or thing doing the action: John cooked the food last night.

In the passive, the action is done to the subject: The food was cooked last night.

The passive occurs very commonly in English: it is not merely an alter­native to the active, but has its own distinctive uses.

§ 2. Forms of the passive. Passives can be formed in the following ways:

• 'to be' + past participle: The food is/has been/will be cooked. The food is/was being cooked;

• modal + 'to be/to have been' + past participle: The food may be/ have been cooked;

• infinitive: 'to be/to have been' + past participle active: The food is to be/was to have been cooked;

• -ing form: 'being/having been' + past participle: Being/Having be­en cooked...

§ 3. Transitive and intransitive verbs.

The passive occurs only with verbs used transitively, that is, verbs that can be followed by an object.

There are verbs that can be used transitively or intransitively: The door opened (perhaps by itself). The door was opened (perhaps by someone).

§ 4. Uses of the passive.

4.1. The passive voice is a very versatile construction. It is particularly useful when the performer of the action is unknown or irrelevant to the matter at hand. Thus you might write in a memo Office mail is now delive­red twice a day where what is important is the frequency of mail delivery, not the identity of the people working in the mailroom.

You can also use the passive voice to conceal the performer of an action or the identity of a person responsible for a mistake: We had hoped to repo?t on this problem but the data was inadvertently deleted from our files. Who deleted the data? By using the passive voice the writer is able to avoid iden­tifying the guilty party. This virtue of obscuring responsibility is in part what makes the passive voice so tempting to anyone working in an organi­zation where something has gone wrong. Since the occasions for avoiding responsibility are multitudinous, passive verbs are bound to thrive for at least in the foreseeable future.

Surprisingly enough, you can also use the passive voice to emphasize the performer of the action by putting the performer in a prepositional phrase using by at the end of the sentence: The breakthrough was achieved by Burlingame and Evans, two researchers in the university's genetic engine­ering lab. In this way the passive voice functions like a well-run awards ceremony. It creates suspense by delaying the announcement of the names.

2. You may sometimes find it desirable to conjoin a passive verb form with a passive infinitive, as in ^uThe buildingxs scheduled to be demolished next week" and "The piece was originally intended to be played on the harpsichord." These sentences are perfectly acceptable. But it's easy for things to go wrong in these double passive constructions. They sometimes end in ambiguity: An independent review of the proposal was requested to be made by the committee. In this sentence, is the committee making the request or doing the review? What is worse, double passives often sound u ngrammatical.

3. The Passive is used in factual writing, particularly in describing procedures or processes, academic writing and official letters where we of­ten wish to omit the agent, and use passive.

E. g.: Nuclear waste will stillbe radioactive even after 20, 000years, so it must be disposed of very carefully. It can be stored as a liquid in stainless-steel containers which are enclosed in concrete. The most dangerous nuclear waste can be turned into glass. It is planned to store this glass in deep un­derground mines.

4.4. Verbs that can be followed by either object + object or object + pre- positional object in active clauses can have two corresponding passive forms. The passive form you choose depends on which is more appropriate in a particular context. Compare:

Active: Passive:

• she handed me the plate; • I was handed the plate;

• she handed the plate to me. • the plate was handed to me.

Other verbs like 'to hand' are give, lend, offer, promise, sell, tell, throw.

However, verbs that can't be followed by object + object in the active have only one of these passive forms:

• he described me the situation; • I was described the situation;

• he described the situation to me. • the situation was described to me.

Other verbs like this include demonstrate, explain, introduce, menti­on, report, suggest.

F.l. Identify all the passive forms in the text "Evolution of Modern Marketing" and translate the sentences into Russian.

F.2. Write the correct words in the blanks to convert each sentence from passive to active voice.

1. The company's tax liability is reduced by a bond received from the foreign government. — The foreign government....

2. Under the Code, a foreign tax is defined as any tax imposed by a fore­ign country or US possession. — ... a foreign tax as any tax ....

3. The land improvements were made by the foreign subsidiary control­led by Atkins, Ltd. — The foreign subsidiary ....

4. Coronda, Ltd. is not owned by a foreign corporation. — A foreign cor­poration ....

F.3. Rewrite these sentences beginning with (The) + a noun formed from the italicized verb and a passive verb. Choose an appropriate verb tense and make any necessary changes. Which variant sounds more for­mal?

1. They will consider the issue at next week's meeting. The consideration will be given to the issue at next week ^fs meeting.

2. They eventually permitted the site to be used for the festival.

3. They have transferred the money to my bank account.

4. They will present the trophy after the speeches.

5. They will not announce the findings until next week.

6. They demolished the building in only two days.

7. They will produce the new car in a purpose-build factory.

F.4. If possible, make a corresponding passive sentence. If it is not possible, write "No passive."

1. The committee called on Paula to explain her reasons for the propo­sed changes. — Paula was called on to explain her reasons for the pro­posed changes.

2. I got down most of what he said in his lecture. — Most of what he said in his lecture ....

3. When I was young my aunt and uncle looked after me. — When I was young I....

4. The surgeons operated on him for nearly 12 hours. — He ....

5. Sandra let out a scream and collapsed to the floor. — A scream ....

6. Hugh takes after Edward — they're both very well organized. — Ed­ward ....

6. All his relatives approved of his decision. — His decision ....

G. Speak up

G.l. Answer the following questions.

1. How important is marketing for a firm and for the whole economy?

2. Marketing is not an event, but process. How long does the process last?

G.2. Discussion topics.

Read the list of concepts of the marketing process. Rearrange them in accordance with their importance.

• Marketing is more than selling and advertising.

• Pinpointing consumers' need.

• Predicting demand.

• Establishing distribution systems.

• Calculating price.

• Developing communication campaigns.

• Gauging competition.

H. Reading the English newspaper

H.l. Read the article and do the exercises.

Rebranding HealthSouth?

Sheiii C. Goodman, "Bhmingham News"

HealthSouth Corp. founder and ousted CEO Richard Scrushy once bo­asted he wanted the Birmingham-based corporation to become the McDo­nald's of health care and he spent millions to make that happen.

From golf shirts, pens, coffee mugs and gym bags to eminent scholar chairs, flashy traveling productions, radio programs and even television shows, the name and the logo were everywhere.

Now, the moniker is seemingly everywhere once again, but for different reasons: a headline-grabbing accounting fraud investigation complete with allegations of phony profits, extravagant spending, intimidation and insi­der trading.

Branding experts agree the scandal has damaged the HealthSouth na­me, but they believe it can recover, and, apparently so does the company's new management. HealthSouth has no immediate plans to change the na­me, said spokesman Andy Brimmer.

Instead, the company plans to focus on preserving and rebuilding the value of the name.

"The brand can survive, but several things need to be done to ensure that happens," said Clay Timon, CEO of San Francisco-based branding consultancy firm Landor Associates.

"Among other things, the company needs to employ a public-relations firm with crisis management expertise and work to understand what ma­kes HealthSouth worthwhile to its customers," Timon said.

"Brands are relatively strong. This is a relatively new brand, but in he­alth care, a brand lives and dies on the quality of services a customer beli­eves he gets. If quality remains high, then the brand can easily remain whe­re it is," Timon said.

Jim Johnson, chief executive of New York-based branding consultancy firm Enterprise IG, said the perception of the care given by HealthSouth has not been compromised by the accounting scandal.

"The problems are in financial governance, not in performing health du­ties. That would be a fatal flaw. This is a financial governance issue and people will separate that out," he said.

One of the biggest challenges, though, will be the close association bet­ween Scrushy and HealthSouth.

"It is hard to separate Richard Scrushy, the person, from HealthSouth, the company," said Robert Holmes, the University of Alabama at Bir­mingham's business school dean.

"But it's been a powerful brand and it would make sense to retain the name. If you can get beyond the Richard Scrushy part of it, it will probably be fine."

Scrushy's goal when he founded HealthSouth was to build a recogni­zable chain of standardized rehabilitation and out-patient surgery centers. Once the company went public and was considered a success, the com­pany's branding efforts expanded beyond advertisements, sponsorships and logos on clothing and office gear.

In 1995, the company recruited sports celebrities such as Bo Jackson, Rowdy Gaines and Tom Glavine to take part in a roadshow meant to teach children about athletic preparation and training. HealthSouth spent at le­ast $ 5.6 million to produce the flashy "Go for It!" show, which included thumping music, laser lights, a boy band and a girl group. One of the com­pany's customers, Travelers Group Inc., committed another $ 5 million from 1996 to 2001 for the production.

In 1996, Scrushy said HealthSouth was pursuing joint ventures to put the company's name and logo on athletic footwear and sports beverages. Neither panned out.

In 2001, the company created a television game show based on the ro­adshow. Scrushy then hired former child actor Jason Hervey to oversee the company's entertainment and marketing operations. Another televisi­on series and a joint venture with Sony followed.

Scrushy and Hervey also co-hosted a couple of radio shows one on He­althSouth related topics and one on the entertainment industry, which was recently canceled.

Broad or Unfocused?

Scrushy, who canned the "Go for It!" campaign in February to save mo­ney, saw the entertainment projects as a way to broaden Health Sou th's brand and build new business.

Current management sees it as "unfocused activity" drawing away from the core business. The company canceled the HealthSouth radio show and placed Hervey on administrative leave.

"Anything in the entertainment realm has been discontinued," Interim Chairman Joel Gordon said. As part of its effort to rebuild the brand's cre­dibility, the new management removed all traces of Scrushy from corpora­te headquarters and the company Web site.

Posters promoting HealthSouth's new slogan, "The Many Faces of He­althSouth," will replace placards bearing Scrushy's corporate message, "Pulling the Wagon," in facilities throughout the system, Brimmer said.

The company has also announced plans to sell some of the aircraft, ve­hicles and tractor-trailers acquired while Scrushy headed the company. Meanwhile, the board of directors adopted corporate governance guideli­nes aimed at increasing its independence from the company. And the com­pany pledged that payments to physicians, employees and suppliers will not be interrupted.

"Perception is very important to this company at this point," Gordon said. He added: "The future image of the company will certainly be less arrogant than in the past."

The Wall Street Journal has reported that some of the company's sur­gery partners are considering severing ties to HealthSouth. Timon, howe­ver, said he doubted the perception of the HealthSouth name will negati­vely impact centers around the country.

"Customers may be more tuned in with the local doctors they're dealing with," he said.

Sticking Together

At least one of HealthSouth's surgery partners gave the company a vo­te of confidence last week. A day after the SEC investigation was announ­ced on March 19, the doctors at HealthSouth Outpatient Care Surgery Center in Birmingham had voted to remove HealthSouth's name from the exterior of its building, worried the association might hurt business and drag down the center. But last week, the doctors reversed their decision, opting to stick it out with HealthSouth, said ear specialist Dr. Dennis Pap-pas Jr.

"Originally we did not know how patients and others would perceive the events," he said. "But the public in this area at least has been sophisti­cated enough to realize it was individuals on the corporate side that have damaged the company severely."

"The patients also recognize the level of care has not changed," he said.

"We haven't seen the concern or damage we expected," Pappas said.

H.2. Answer the following questions.

1. Why did the HealthSouth need re-branding?

2. What needs to be done to keep the brand?

3. What conditions must be met so that a health care brand be a suc­cess?

4. What was Scrushy's goal when he founded HealthSouth? How did marketing help him reach this goal?

5. What does HealthSouth's news slogan imply? How did it match com­pany's re-branding strategy?

H.3. Match up the words and definitions:

1. logo; a) to act host of a party, friendly meeting, TV show, etc.;

2. expertise; b) a group that travels around the country giving public

performances for the purpose of entertainment, advertising, etc.;

3) rehabilitation; c) a person who goes to a hospital for treatment while

continuing to live at home;

4) out-patient; d) making a person able to live a healthy, useful, or active

life again, esp. after being ill, in prison, etc.;

5. to go public; e) special skills or knowledge in an area of work or stud;

6. road show; f) a design or way of writing its name that a company or

organization uses as its official sign on its products, advertising, etc;

7. to compromise; g) to become known to all or to many;

7. to host. h) to put into dishonorable position, bring shame to.

H.4. Read the article once more, find the sentences containing passi­ves and translate them into Russian.

H.5. Make up the outline of the article and then render it.