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Okay so first of all, like I said before, in the active, we have the subject, 'I made a mistake'.
首先，就像我之前说的，在主动语态中是有主语的，‘I made a mistake’。
So in this case when I say, 'I made a mistake', I'm taking responsibility for doing something.
‘I made a mistake’，表明我要为这件事负责。
Now this is a strong sentence in general in English we prefer to use the active.
通常标准的句式结构，我们会使用主动语态。
So for your teachers, for most essays, for most of your work you're doing,
例如，你的老师，在大部分论文以及大部分你做的作业中，
your teacher would prefer a strong sentence where you do have a subject and the verb like this.
你的老师更喜欢标准的句式结构，其中有主语和这样的动词。
Now where this is not the case is when we're trying to avoid taking responsibility for something,
当我们想要避免承担责任的时候，不想因为什么事情担责任的时候
when we don't want to take the blame for something we did. So if you think about businesses and governments, this is where this comes in okay?
就不能用主动语态。所以大家想一想商业和政府，他们就不会使用主动语态。
Governments hate saying, they did something wrong, they hate doing that and so if you're president of your country said,
政府不喜欢承认自己做错了什么，他们不喜欢这么做，所以如果你某国总统，你说
'listen guys, I made a mistake, I lost a whole bunch of money'. The citizens would be really angry
‘听着，我犯了一个错误，我损了一大笔钱’。国民们会很生气，
so instead what governments do, they change it to the passive instead of me taking responsibility for making a mistake
所以政府会将其改成被动语态而避免为这个错误承担责任。
now I say simply, 'a mistake was made'. Who made the mistake, it's unclear, we haven't said who made the mistake
现在我只说，‘a mistake was made’。是谁犯的错误，不清楚我们没有说是谁犯错了
in this case we're trying to shy away from that, we don't want to suggest who made that mistake. 'A serious mistake was made'.
我们想要回避，不想暗示是谁犯了错，‘A serious mistake was made’。
Okay, similarly in war, governments armies, they often kill a lot of people, so if the government said 'we killed a lot of people today'.
战争也是一样的，政府军队，他们通常会杀死很人多，所以如果政府说，‘we killed a lot of people today’。
They probably would not be reelected, it would not be something nice for them to say, they would become unpopular.
他们可能不会再次当选了，他们这么多不太好，他们会失去大家的支持。
So how do they change this around? Well, they take away their responsibility, they say, 'a lot of people were killed'.
所以他们要怎么改变这一局面呢？他们推卸了自己的责任，他们说，‘a lot of people were killed’。
Who killed them, we don't know, just a lot of people were killed. So you see again, we're taking away the responsibility, the blame of someone.
谁杀死了他们，我们不知道，只知道很多人被杀死了。我们在推卸自己的责任。
Businesses also love to use this. Anytime a business is going to do something that's probably going to anger you
在商业中，也喜欢这么用。任何时候，公司可能会做一些让你生气的事情，
they don't want to take responsibility for it. So for example, maybe you didn't pay your bills and so as a the result of that,
他们不想承担责任。例如，或许你没有付账单，
you owe the hydro company a lot of money and they want to tell you they're going to shut off your electricity.
结果你欠水电公司很多钱，他们不想告诉你他们要给你停电。
Instead of saying, 'we will turn off your electricity'. If you see that 'we', you're going to get angry at the company,
他们不会说，‘we will turn off your electricity’。如果你看到‘we’，你会对这家公司感到生气，
they avoid the 'we', instead they say, 'your electricity will be turned off'.
他们不会说，‘we’，他们会说，‘your electricity will be turned off’。
Who turned it off, I don't know, it's just going to be turned off.
谁停的电，我不知道，就是要停电了。
So again in terms of the passive, we're focused on the actual action itself, we're not focused on who did the action,
所以被动语态，我们关注的是行为本身，我们不关注是谁做出了这个行为，
who did the action, we're either trying to hide who did the action or it doesn't matter
我们要么是隐藏做出这个行为的人，要么这不重要，
or alternatively oftentimes with newspapers we use the passive and the reason is sometimes when crimes are committed.
或者在报纸上我们经常使用被动语态，有时有犯罪发生，所以要用被动。
You don't know who did the crime, so if you you don't really know who did something, the passive is the way to go.
你不知道是谁作的案，所以你真的不知道谁是凶手，就要用被动语态。
So maybe in this case, there was a murder who murdered a lot of people, they don't know who did it.
在这种情况下，有一个凶手杀了很多人，但我们不知道凶手是谁。
A newspaper might use this as well, 'a lot of people were killed'. Who killed the people we don't know.
报纸还可能也会这么写，‘a lot of people were killed’。谁杀了人，我们不知道。
So to sum up, active voice is better for essays, for regular writing, because it's stronger,
总的来说，主动语态最好用于论文、常规写作，因为这更加标准的句式结构，
it's not vague, it's not unclear and you're saying specifically who did something. The subject is important.
不会模糊不清，你指明了这个行为的实施者。主语很重要。
Whereas with the passive, this is the tricky one. This is the one that governments love to use and business people like to use. 'If mistakes were made'.
而被动语态，就比较复杂。政府和商务人士喜欢使用被动语态。‘If mistakes were made’。
So for more practice on this, I invite you to come visit our site at www.engvid.com
更对相关联系，我要请大家来我们的网站看看www.engvid.com，
We have a quiz there. I invite you to do this quiz. So until next time, take care.
网站里有一个小测试，请大家来做做测试。我们下期见。
'Mistakes were made and I'm frankly not happy about it...'
‘错误已经铸成，坦白说，我对此并不满意......’
