Hi Dianella ( and the others as well
)
Sorry I came to your question pretty late.
I think you & the other pals have missed a point here (I mean in your question). Look! verbs in English are two kinds: Transitive( the ones which need an object) & Intransitive( the ones which don't need an object):
Transitive : See
I see a man.
Intransitive: cry
He cried a lot in the morning.
But there are some special verbs( like Terminate ) which are both transitive & intransitive.I mean they can be used with & without an object. On the other hand, we know that it's impossible to make a passive sentence by an intransitive verb( because all passive sentences are made by transitive verbs):
He was seen yesterday.
But NOT: I was cried.
So, when we see that a word like " terminate " is both transitive & intransitive, it means this word-when intransitive- can be used in active form without an object( like the example you've written up there):
Program terminated.
Now the problem is that in the above sentence wether the program is the subject or someone else.Since it is in active voice, we can say that the best translation for it is : برنامه پايان يافت.
Because it were passive, it would have had its auxiliary verb " was ".
However, it's true that the frequency of using passive voice in English (specially in formal texts is more than in Persian) and it's always recommended to change passive structures in English to active in Persian, if possible, to make the translation of the text sound more Persian rather than English.
Another hint:
If you wanna know more about the usage of such multi-functional verbs, you'd better take a look at the following sentence:
This book sells well.
Which translatin sounds correct:
اين كتاب خوب مي فروشد or اين كتاب خوب فروش مي رود.
You see! In this example it's preety easy to say which translation is correct but in you example, considering the fact that the fact that the word " program " can act as a subject and as an agent as well, it's pretty difficult to decide between those two translations unless you check the sentences before & after it.
Some more examples(exerpted from Oxford Advanced Leaner's Dictionary):
Your contract of employment terminates in December.
The agreement was terminated immediately.
I hope the problem is a bit lightened now.
Waiting for your comments if you have any.