SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 18 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 6 of 99

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 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Select the option that expresses the given sentence in passive voice. Can you compose an inspiring poem?

(a)Can an inspiring poem by you composed?
(b)Can an inspiring poem be composed?
(c)An inspiring poem can be composed by you.
(d)Can an inspiring poem be composed by you?

Answer

Why

Correct — D. The active sentence is a question built on a modal: Can you compose an inspiring poem?

In the passive the modal stays in front, the object becomes the subject, and be plus the past participle follows: Can an inspiring poem be composed by you?

The agent you does not vanish. It moves into a by-phrase.

Interrogative word order and the question mark are both kept, which is what option (d) does.

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Can an inspiring poem by you composed? — By you composed has no be. After a modal the passive needs be plus the past participle — can be composed — and the agent cannot sit inside the verb.
(b)
Can an inspiring poem be composed? — This is well-formed English but it drops the agent. The active sentence names who would do the composing, and a voice change must carry that information across.
(c)
An inspiring poem can be composed by you. — Word order here is statement order, subject before modal. The original is a question, so the auxiliary must precede the subject and the sentence must end in a question mark.

Concept

Passivising a modal question follows a fixed order.

Keep the modal at the front, because the sentence is still a question: Can ...

Make the active object the new subject: an inspiring poem.

Add be plus the past participle: be composed.

Attach the agent with by — by you — and close with a question mark.

Dropping the by-phrase is normal English when the agent is unknown or unimportant. In a transformation item the agent is given, so removing it throws away information the question supplies.

Key facts

The modal passive is modal + be + past participle: can be composed, must be delivered.
In a passive question the auxiliary stays before the subject: Can the poem be composed?
Compose has the past participle composed, so the passive verb is be composed.

Study next

Passives of who-questions, where the agent becomes By whomPassives of continuous tenses: was being taughtModal passives across modals: must be, should be, will be

Common traps

Choosing the agentless passive, which is grammatical but discards by you.
Writing can be composing, mixing a continuous form into a passive.

Voice change is a recurring English format, and the interrogative is its harder variant: Who invited you to this party? becomes By whom were you invited to this party? at 12 Sep 2024, 16:00, EC Q.19. The continuous passive is asked at 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, EC Q.11.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.