The Paper That Hacked Itself
Grammar: Passive Voice
A Business English English lesson exploring technology.
What's in this lesson
A Business English ESL lesson on technology, practising passive voice. The worksheet has a reading, target vocabulary, a grammar reference with practice and discussion questions.
From the reading: The Paper That Hacked Itself
"I am not responsible for what happened on my watch," Rebekah Brooks told the Leveson Inquiry in May 2012. It was a sentence that stopped the room. Brooks, former editor of News of the World and later chief executive of News International, had been asked about the systematic interception of voicemails — a practice that, by the time of the Inquiry, had been confirmed as widespread, deliberate, and directly traceable to her own newsroom. The deletion of Milly Dowler's voicemails in 2002, which gave her family false hope that she was alive, had finally made suppression impossible.
Vocabulary
- chilling effect
- off the record
- public interest defence
- source protection
Grammar: Passive Voice
- Passive — agent
- The voicemails were intercepted over several years. — foregrounds the event; agent deliberately omitted
- Nominalisation
- The suppression of evidence prolonged the inquiry. — convert verbs to nouns for formal, analytical register
Discussion questions
- Do you think a genuinely free press is possible when editors answer to owners?
- Is it ever right for a journalist to break the law in pursuit of a story?
- Should politicians be held personally responsible for media they know is corrupt?
The Paper That Hacked Itself
Grammar: Passive Voice
What's in this lesson:
Full lesson plan with reading, grammar, vocabulary, and discussion.
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