Sources of Wealth
Senior 1 · English
Sources of Wealth
Lesson 2 of 5
25 min
Let's begin
A cup of coffee in a café in London or Seoul may have started as a red cherry on a hillside in Huye or Nyamasheke. Between the bush and the cup there are many steps, and at each step skilled people add value. When we describe steps like these, we usually care about what happens to the coffee, not about who does it. That is the job of the passive.
Before you listen: Have you ever seen coffee growing, or coffee beans drying in the sun? What colour were they?
A youth radio programme visits a coffee washing station in Huye District during the harvest. The presenter, Tuyisenge, talks to the station manager, Mr Kabanda.
Tuyisenge: Good morning, listeners! I'm standing in a coffee washing station in Huye, and it is very busy. Mr Kabanda, what is happening here?
Mr Kabanda: Good morning. It's harvest time. In this area the main harvest runs from about March to July, and every afternoon hundreds of farmers bring the cherries they picked that morning.
Tuyisenge: How are the cherries picked?
Mr Kabanda: They are picked by hand, one by one. Only the ripe red ones are chosen; green cherries make the coffee taste bad. When they arrive here, they are weighed, and each farmer is paid according to the weight.
Tuyisenge: What happens next?
Mr Kabanda: First the cherries are sorted and put into water. Good cherries sink; bad ones float, so they are removed. Then the skin and the sweet pulp are taken off by a pulping machine. Inside each cherry there are two beans.
Tuyisenge: And those beans are dried in the sun?
Mr Kabanda: Not yet! First they are left in tanks of water for about a day, so the sticky layer is broken down. Then they are washed with clean water. That is why this place is called a washing station. After that, the wet beans are spread on those long raised tables you can see. They are turned by hand many times a day and dried slowly for about two weeks.
Tuyisenge: Is the coffee sold from here?
Mr Kabanda: The dried beans are taken to a dry mill, where the thin paper-like skin is removed. The green beans are graded by size and quality and packed in sacks. Most of our coffee is exported to buyers in Europe, Asia and North America. It isn't roasted here; it is roasted in the buyer's country, just before it is sold.
Tuyisenge: So a lot of work is done before anyone drinks a cup!
Mr Kabanda: Exactly. Good coffee is made by careful people at every step.
| Word | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| harvest | (noun) the time when crops are collected; (verb) collect crops | The coffee harvest runs from March to July. |
| cherry | the small red fruit of the coffee bush, with two beans inside | Only ripe cherries are picked. |
| ripe | fully grown and ready to eat or use | Ripe cherries are red. |
| washing station | a place where coffee cherries are pulped, washed and dried | Farmers sell cherries to the washing station. |
| pulp | (noun) the soft fruit around the beans; (verb) remove it | The pulp is removed by a machine. |
| ferment | change chemically, often with the help of tiny organisms | The beans ferment in tanks for a day. |
| hull | remove the dry outer skin of a seed | The beans are hulled at the dry mill. |
| grade | sort by size or quality | The beans are graded before export. |
| roast | cook with dry heat | Coffee is roasted just before it is sold. |
| process | (noun) a series of steps; (verb) treat raw material to make a product | Processing adds value to coffee. |
Definition
Active voice: the subject does the action. Farmers pick the cherries.
Passive voice: the subject receives the action. The cherries are picked (by farmers).
Present simple passive: am / is / are + the past participle of the verb. We use it for processes, facts and routines when the action matters more than the person who does it.
| Singular subject | Plural subject | |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | Coffee is grown in Huye. | The cherries are picked by hand. |
| Negative | The coffee isn't roasted here. | Green cherries aren't chosen. |
| Question | Is the coffee exported? | Are the beans washed? |
| Short answer | Yes, it is. No, it isn't. | Yes, they are. No, they aren't. |
| With the doer | The pulp is removed by a machine. (Add by + the doer only if it is useful.) | |
| Regular (-ed) | Irregular |
|---|---|
| pick → picked, wash → washed, dry → dried, export → exported, mine → mined, process → processed, plant → planted | grow → grown, take → taken, sell → sold, make → made, send → sent, bring → brought, put → put, give → given |
| Active | Passive | Why passive here? |
|---|---|---|
| Workers turn the beans many times a day. | The beans are turned many times a day. | We care about the beans; "workers" is obvious. |
| Someone grows coffee in Huye. | Coffee is grown in Huye. | "Someone" tells us nothing. |
| Miners mine tin in the north. | Tin is mined in the north. | The topic of the sentence is tin. |
Worked example
Change to the passive: Buyers in Europe roast the green beans.
Warning
Tip
Passive = be + past participle. Write the formula at the top of your page. Every passive sentence you write must contain both parts: a form of be and a past participle.
Present and past passives: 6 Minute Grammar, BBC Learning English (6 minutes). Listen for the form of be plus the past participle, and for when the speakers leave out the doer.
In pairs, explain one of these processes to your partner in six to eight steps, using the present simple passive: how milk is collected and sold at a milk collection centre; how agaseke baskets are made; how bricks are made; how a school meal is prepared. Your partner draws a simple flowchart as you speak.
First, the cows are milked early in the morning. The milk is poured into clean metal cans, and the cans are carried to the collection centre by bicycle or motorbike. There the milk is tested for quality and weighed. It is cooled quickly in a big tank. Then it is collected by a lorry and taken to a dairy, where it is heated, packed and sold in shops.
Use these notes to write a paragraph of 80 to 100 words describing how tea is produced. Use the present simple passive and sequence words (first, then, after that, finally).
Notes: pick the top two leaves and a bud by hand → weigh the leaves at the collection point → take the leaves to the factory the same day → dry (wither) the leaves → cut and roll them → let them oxidise (turn brown) → dry them with hot air → sort and pack the tea → sell it at auction or export it.
First, the top two leaves and a bud are picked by hand, and they are weighed at the collection point. The leaves are taken to the factory on the same day, because they lose quality quickly. There they are spread out and dried a little. Then they are cut and rolled, and they are left to oxidise until they turn brown. After that, the tea is dried with hot air. Finally, it is sorted, packed in sacks and sold at auction, and most of it is exported.
Practice
Sources and credits
