Passive Voice

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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sherrychan
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Passive Voice

Post by sherrychan »

'Driving down the main high street, hardly a single building is left standing.'

The building is not destroyed at the time the reporter passes through, but when the typhoon arrived a few days ago, why the passive voice in this sentence is using present tense but not past tense or present perfect tense?

Thank you very much!
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Alan
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Re: Passive Voice

Post by Alan »

It' s called the historic present, a special use of the present tense to make past events seem more 'alive' to the listener/reader.
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