【明報專訊】In recent years, badminton has mainly been dominated by Asian players, especially in the women's events. The situation has slightly changed with the emergence of Spaniard Carolina Marin (馬蓮). In 2014 she won Europe's first World Championship gold medal in women's singles since 1999. This year she successfully defended her title. Marin, 22, is currently the world's top-ranked female badminton player.

Badminton is not a popular sport in Spain. You may not believe it, but even Marin herself did not know the sport existed until she was eight years old. Before she met badminton accidentally, she had wanted to become a professional flamenco (佛林明哥舞) dancer. It is fortunate for European badminton fans that she has chosen the right path！

■English highway﹕-sentence

Passive voice

We often use the passive voice when we want to say what happens to people and things. The doer of the action is introduced with the word "by", but that is not always required. The passive form of a verb is constructed by joining the correct tense of the verb "to be" with the past participle of the verb.

e.g. The robber was arrested by a police officer.

e.g. The construction works will be completed next week.

■Glossary

flipper (n) 鰭

animation (n) 動畫

dominate (v) 主宰、佔優

emergence (n) 出現