The
historic present
Verbs
in the "historic present" describe
something that happened in the past.
The present tense is used because the facts
are listed as a summary, and the present tense
provides a sense of urgency. This historic present
tense is also found in news bulletins. The announcer
may say at the start, "Fire hits a city
centre building, the government defends the
new minister, and in football City United lose."
Passive
Language
The
passive is used when we don’t know exactly
who did the action and it isn’t important.
The passive is sometimes heard in News Bulletins
- It is reported that... - when the source
of a report is not known although it is known
that a report is true.
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on the title
to return to that page.
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The
historic present
- Anaesthetic
agents provide pain relief...
Priestly creates nitrous oxide
Ether is discovered....
Simpson introduces chloroform
New machines...are built
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The
historic present
- Advances
of anaesthesia mean that operations
are...
Joseph Lister introduces...
Reduction in deaths....
Passive
language
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The
historic present
- Edward
Jenner injects James Phillips with cowpox...
Vaccine
research becomes...
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The
historic present
- Alexander
Flemming discovers that...
Penicillin
established as a...
New
antibiotics developed...
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The
historic present
- Wilhelm
Roentgen discovers...
Pioneering work begins...
Passive
language
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The
historic present
- Frederick
Banting and Charles Best perform...
Fred
Sanger...starts work...
Passive
language
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The
historic present
- Technical
developments in lens production lead...
Passive
language
Gradual
processes
Not
everything in science happens at once.
There are many ways of expressing this.
-
...identifies what come to be known
as
...begin to be used
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The
historic present
- Marie
Stopes...sets up her...
Clinical
tests begin...
The
adverb freely
Becomes
means ...to start to be. It’s in
the historic present. Note that freely
- an adverb - does not mean the same as
the adjective free - without cost. It means
that there are no restrictions on buying
condoms.
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Organ
Transplantation
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The
historic present
Passive
language
- operation
is performed...
Complex
summaries
The
body sometimes rejects an organ implant.
To lessen or reduce this risk one can
suppress the immune system. Peter Medawar
is researching this.
-
...breakthrough research
on suppressing the immune system
to reduce rejection by
the body.
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The
historic present
- Fibre-optics
now offer...
Referring
back to something
- These
are hard metal tubes.
We need to work out whether These
refers to the interiors, the tubes or the
mirrors, lights and lenses.
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