This is one of the first teaching resources I’ve uploaded in a while. I got used to emailing them to myself and downloading, and now that I think of it I should upload a bunch of those files in a batch, with a list of what kinds of resources they are. But I’ll start by trying to cultivate a habit uploading new things as I create them. This quizlet deals with the passive, and with holidays. (That’s book themes for you.) If you want to check it out, please read the rest of this post.

First off, the file. It’s a .doc file containing a silly quiz I’m using for Chapter 2 of Inside English, which is the text for my Advanced Conversation class.

It deals with using verbs in the passive voice… except that, since these are all idioms using the passive voice, they tend to be more interesting to advanced students. And since the chapter deals with celebrations of different kinds, this quiz also includes a couple of questions on holidays. (The answer to the question about the Montrealers is “Canada Day”, by the way: since the “national holiday” of Quebec is the Feast of St. John the Baptist, the Canada Day celebrations aren’t as festive and in the streets many trucks can be seen moving people’s belongings from their old apartments to their new ones. (Or at least I remember the moving-traffic being quite heavy on Canada Day, which incidentally for you non-Canadians is July 1st.)

(Warning: I haven’t been in Montreal for Canada Day for the last four years, so things might have changed. But it’s trivia for students in Korea, the vast majority of whom will never go there, so I’m not going to worry about being a little out of date on that point.)

Here’s a sample of the kinds of questions on this multiple choice quiz:

She was outed.

1. She was kicked out of the room.
2. She was thrown out of the organization.
3. She was taken out on a date.
4. One of her secrets was revealed.
5. She revealed one of her secrets.

This quiz could be appropriate as a fun take-home assignment, as a quiz game in-class, or performed as a normal quiz (for no credit, of course, just for fun) with the real answers given out after students vote on what they think is the right one.

By the way, there is one question among the first six in which there is no passive voice used in the idiom. If you’re not paying attention, you’ll miss it as I did when I thought up the question; you can delete that one, if you find it, or you can do as I do: leave it in, and have students find it and explain why it’s not passiveas a mini-addition to their homework. And if you can’t find it, for shame, you should review the subject before you teach it to your poor students!