Pleasing_Brian said:
I've got to be honest with you, I've never heard of anything in English being described as either "active" or "passive" so I would have had the same dilemma.
Personally, I think that question was too tough for a $500 level question.
I think this question goes into the category of how you can never assume something is common knowledge. If my recollection serves, the unfortunate contestant who got knocked out on the first question a few years ago, got knocked out on a nursery rhyme question. I can't remember exactly what it was, but it was an incredibly easy question if you had grown up in North America. However, if you hadn't, you would have no idea.
On this particular question, I think one would have to think back to their elementary school grammar lessons, because the notion of "active" and "passive" verbs doesn't really come up that much as it pertains to everyday spoken English. I was a geek, so I took Latin in high school, so yeah, I still have painful memories of having to conjugate verbs not only in voice (active vs. passive) but also mood, tense, and person.
