SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 12 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 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 active voice. Data is being collected by the researcher.

(a)The researcher is collecting data.
(b)The researcher has been collecting data.
(c)The researcher has collected data.
(d)The researcher will be collecting data.

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The given sentence is present continuous passive: is being + collected.

Turn it round without touching the time. The agent in "by the researcher" becomes the subject, "data" drops back to object, and the verb is rebuilt in the active form of the same tense.

Present continuous active is is/are + verb-ing, so the researcher is collecting data. Option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
The researcher has been collecting data. — has been collecting is present perfect continuous, whose passive would be "has been being collected". The change of voice has silently changed the tense.
(c)
The researcher has collected data. — has collected is present perfect, and its passive is "has been collected". The original says the collecting is going on now, not that it is finished.
(d)
The researcher will be collecting data. — will be collecting moves the work into the future. Nothing in "is being collected" points forward, and a voice change must leave the time untouched.

Concept

Voice change is mechanical, with one rule you may not break: the tense stays put.

Passive to active in three moves — lift the agent out of the by-phrase into the subject slot, push the passive subject into the object slot, and rewrite the verb in the active form of the same tense.

For the continuous present the pair to memorise is short: active is/are + verb-ing, passive is/are being + past participle.

Every wrong option here is a perfectly good English sentence in the wrong tense, so this item is decided by the auxiliary and by nothing else.

The paper writes "Data is being collected", treating data as singular. Reproduce that — the item is about voice, not about whether data takes a singular or plural verb.

Key facts

Present continuous passive is formed with is or are + being + past participle.
Present continuous active is formed with is or are + verb-ing.
In a passive-to-active change the by-phrase agent becomes the subject.
The tense of the original sentence must survive the change of voice.

Study next

The passive of every tense, especially the continuous onesVoice change with modals, as in "The homework must be done by you"Passive sentences with no agent, where the active needs a supplied subject

Common traps

Choosing the present perfect because "is being collected" feels like work already under way.
Getting subject and object right and then changing the tense anyway.
Forgetting that the by-phrase names the doer, so it must become the subject.

One passive sentence, four active ones that differ only in the auxiliary — word order will not separate them.

Active-voice conversion is also asked 09 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.1 ("The homework must be done by you.") and English Q.17 ("The meal was not prepared by us."), and 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.5.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.