The Laundries That Time Forgot
Grammar: Advanced passive constructions and nominalisation
A Level 5 English lesson exploring society.
What's in this lesson
A Level 5 (advanced) ESL lesson on society, practising advanced passive constructions and nominalisation. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary, a grammar reference with practice and discussion questions.
From the reading: The Laundries That Time Forgot
In 1996, the last of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries finally closed its doors. For the previous seventy-four years, these institutions — run by four Catholic religious orders across ten sites — had confined thousands of women and girls behind high walls, barred windows, and locked gates topped with broken glass. What is now known about them represents one of the most extensively documented failures of institutional accountability in twentieth-century Europe. The true number of those confined is believed to exceed the official estimate of 10,000 significantly, partly because records were never fully produced by all of the orders involved.
Vocabulary
- accumulate testimony
- challenge confinement
- enforce silence
- understate scale
Grammar
- Impersonal passive
- It is believed that the real figure exceeds 10,000. — distances the claim from any single speaker
- Passive infinitive
- The report is said to have understated the scale. — reports an attribution in past time
Discussion questions
- When should a state be held responsible for the actions of private institutions?
- Can a society fully reckon with its past without legal consequences?
- Do you think official reports usually tell the whole truth?
The Laundries That Time Forgot
Grammar: Advanced passive constructions and nominalisation
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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