SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 19 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 7 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 passive voice. The cashier had finished the assigned task on time.

(a)The assigned task was finished by the cashier on time.
(b)The assigned task has been finished by the cashier on time.
(c)The assigned task had been finished by the cashier on time.
(d)The assigned task is finished by the cashier on time.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The active verb is had finished — past perfect, that is "had" plus a past participle.

A voice change keeps the tense of the original, so past perfect active becomes had been + past participle.

The object becomes the subject ("The assigned task"), the verb becomes "had been finished", and the doer moves into a by-phrase ("by the cashier").

That gives "The assigned task had been finished by the cashier on time" — option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The assigned task was finished by the cashier on time. — Simple past passive. It answers the active "The cashier finished the task", losing the "had" that makes the original past perfect.
(b)
The assigned task has been finished by the cashier on time. — Present perfect passive, the passive of "has finished". The original is past perfect, so the auxiliary has to be "had", not "has".
(d)
The assigned task is finished by the cashier on time. — Simple present passive. It moves the action into the present and drops the completed-before-a-past-point sense that "had finished" carries.

Concept

Voice change is mechanical once you have named the tense.

Three moves, always the same: the object becomes the subject, the verb becomes "be" plus past participle, and the old subject moves into a by-phrase.

The tense lives in the "be" and must match the active verb exactly — finished becomes was finished, has finished becomes has been finished, had finished becomes had been finished, will finish becomes will be finished.

All four options here share every word except that auxiliary, so naming the active tense settles the item.

This is a tense-identification question wearing a voice-change costume. Say "past perfect" out loud and the option set has already answered itself; nothing else in the four sentences varies.

Key facts

Past perfect passive is formed with had been plus the past participle.
A voice change never alters the tense of the original sentence.
Present perfect passive uses has or have been plus the past participle.

Study next

Passive forms of the perfect tensesPassive of modals: could have sent becomes could have been sentConverting a given passive sentence back into the active

Common traps

Shifting the tense along with the voice and answering "has been finished".
Doubting a correct auxiliary because the by-phrase looks oddly placed.

Voice change is asked in both directions — active to passive here, passive to active at English Q.12 in this same 09:00 shift.

It also runs at 19 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.18, and at 19 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.3 and Q.18, where the modal passive of "could have sent" is tested.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.