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Passive Voice – Test 2

B2 Upper-intermediate GrammarEnglish

This B2 grammar test checks how well you form and use the passive voice across tenses, with modal verbs, and in negatives and questions. It also covers more advanced structures such as causative have/get, passive gerunds, reporting passives and prepositional verbs, and ends with a short reading text. It suits upper-intermediate learners, exam candidates and teachers who need a ready-made revision or assessment sheet.

Questions
30
Time
35 min
PDF
5 pages
Answer key
Included
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Choose the best option (A, B, C or D) for each question. Choose your answers, then press “Check my answers”.

Part 1: Passive forms across tenses

Choose the correct passive form to complete each sentence.

  1. Every December, the town's main square _____ with thousands of coloured lights.

  2. Please wait outside – the patient _____ by the doctor.

  3. The first email _____ in 1971, long before most people had a computer at home.

  4. Don't worry about the dishes – they _____.

  5. The road was closed for a week because a new water pipe _____ underneath it.

  6. Before the guests arrived, the tables _____ and the candles had been lit.

  7. The old cinema _____ into a supermarket – the plans were approved yesterday.

  8. Which part of the sentence is wrong? 'English is spoke in many countries as a second language.'

Part 2: Negatives, questions, modals and the agent

Choose the correct option for each question.

  1. Which sentence is grammatically correct?

  2. A: 'Why are you walking? Where's your car?' B: '_____'

  3. The parcel _____ yet, so I can't tell you what's inside.

  4. You want to know when a famous novel was written. Which question is correct?

  5. Where _____ the conference _____ held next spring?

  6. This jacket _____ in a washing machine – it has to be dry-cleaned.

  7. The fire alarm went off, but there was no fire. It _____ by steam from the shower.

  8. Which sentence is correct?

Part 3: Advanced passive structures

Choose the correct option to complete each sentence or answer each question.

  1. Which part of the sentence is wrong? 'The new rules haven't been explain to the staff yet.'

  2. Don't worry, your dog will be well _____ while you're away.

  3. Why _____ the staff _____ about the changes earlier?

  4. Active: 'The company gave each employee a bonus.' Which passive sentence is correct?

  5. People claim that the castle is haunted. → The castle is claimed _____ haunted.

  6. Where do you usually _____ your hair cut?

  7. The singer is used to _____ by fans everywhere she goes.

  8. Be careful with that vase – it could easily _____ broken.

Part 4: Reading – passives in context

Read the text and choose the best answer to each question.

For more than a century, the old map of the Velden valley was thought to have been destroyed in a fire. Last spring, however, it was found by chance in a box of papers that had been kept in the basement of the town museum since the 1950s.

The discovery was made by Priya Nandakumar, a student who was being paid to sort through the museum's archives during her summer holidays. 'I knew immediately that it was something special,' she says. 'It had been folded very carefully and wrapped in cloth.'

Experts have since confirmed that the map was drawn in 1874. It is believed to be the only surviving record of several villages that were later flooded when a dam was built. Because the paper had been damaged by damp, the museum had the map restored by a specialist team in another city.

The map is now being displayed in a special exhibition, and copies can be ordered online. The museum hopes that the original will be seen by thousands of visitors before it has to be returned to storage to protect it from light.

  1. According to the text, before last spring people believed that the map _____ in a fire.

  2. Which sentence means the same as 'the museum had the map restored by a specialist team'?

  3. 'It is believed to be the only surviving record...' Which sentence has the same meaning?

  4. What does 'a student who was being paid to sort through the museum's archives' tell us?

  5. Which phrase from the text contains a passive with a modal verb?

  6. Which question about the text is grammatically correct?

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About this test

This B2 grammar test checks how well you form and use the passive voice across tenses, with modal verbs, and in negatives and questions. It also covers more advanced structures such as causative have/get, passive gerunds, reporting passives and prepositional verbs, and ends with a short reading text. It suits upper-intermediate learners, exam candidates and teachers who need a ready-made revision or assessment sheet.

Topics covered

Passive tensesNegatives and questionsModal passivesAgent: by vs withCausative have/getReporting passivesPassive gerundsCommon errors

How to use this test

  1. Download the PDF and print it, or take the test online below.
  2. Answer every question without a dictionary or time pressure.
  3. Check your answers and note the topics you need to review.

Notes for teachers

Use this test after teaching passive forms across tenses, or as a diagnostic before moving on to reporting structures. The distractors target typical B2 errors: wrong past participles, a missing 'be' or 'been', passive forms of intransitive verbs, wrong word order in questions, and confusion between 'by' and 'with'. As follow-up, ask students to rewrite the reading text in the active voice and discuss which version sounds more natural, and why.