SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 11 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 15 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 6 September 2026.

Select the option that expresses the given sentence in active voice. The letter was being typed by the secretary when the phone rang.

(a)The secretary will type the letter when the phone rings.
(b)The secretary is typing the letter when the phone rings.
(c)The secretary was typing the letter when the phone rang.
(d)The secretary types the letter when the phone rings.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The passive frame is was being typed — was or were, plus being, plus the past participle. That is the past continuous passive, and its active counterpart is the plain past continuous, was typing.

Then rearrange, changing nothing else:
the agent "by the secretary" becomes the subject
"the letter" becomes the object
the time clause "when the phone rang" is left alone

That gives The secretary was typing the letter when the phone rang — option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The secretary will type the letter when the phone rings. — "will type ... when the phone rings" moves the sentence into the future. Changing voice never changes the tense, and the original is firmly past.
(b)
The secretary is typing the letter when the phone rings. — "is typing" is the present continuous. It keeps the in-progress sense but loses the past time that was being typed carries.
(d)
The secretary types the letter when the phone rings. — "types" is the simple present. It loses both the past time and the in-progress sense, which is the whole point of the being in the passive.

Concept

Voice conversion moves three things and freezes everything else.

The agent after by becomes the subject, the passive subject becomes the object, and the verb takes the active form of the same tense. Nothing about time may shift.

For the continuous tenses the mapping is short: was or were + being + V3 becomes was or were + V-ing; is or are + being + V3 becomes is or are + V-ing. Every wrong option here changes the tense instead of the arrangement.

The when-clause is a subordinate clause with its own verb. It is not part of the passive structure, so rang stays rang however the main clause is rewritten.

Key facts

Past continuous passive: was or were + being + past participle.
Changing voice never changes the tense of the sentence.
The agent in a by-phrase becomes the subject of the active version.
A subordinate time clause is untouched by the voice change.

Study next

Present continuous passive to active: is being collected becomes is collectingVoice change in questions, where the auxiliary moves to the frontModal passives: must be delivered becomes must deliver

Common traps

Writing the simple past "The secretary typed the letter", which loses the interrupted action.
Re-tensing rang to rings to match a wrongly futured main clause.
Keeping the letter as the subject, so the sentence stays passive.

SSC hands you the passive and asks for the active, and here every wrong option varies the tense rather than the word order — so match the tense first and the rest follows.

Continuous passives run the same way on other dates. 17 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.17 turns "Were the plants being grafted by the gardener?" into "Was the gardener grafting the plants?"

19 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.12 turns "Data is being collected by the researcher." into "The researcher is collecting data."

This shift asks the reverse direction at English Q.5, turning "He must deliver pizza." into the passive.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.