SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 23 September 2024, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 13 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 correctly expresses the given sentence in passive voice. Mr. Amar refused him admittance.

(a)Admittance would be refused to him by Mr. Amar.
(b)Admittance shall be refused to him by Mr. Amar.
(c)Admittance was refused to him by Mr. Amar.
(d)Admittance will be refused to him by Mr. Amar.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The active verb is refused, a simple past, and a passive must keep the tense of the sentence it rewrites: simple past becomes was/were + past participle.

The new subject, admittance, is singular, so the auxiliary is was refused.

Refuse takes two objects (him, admittance). When the direct object admittance is promoted to subject, the person keeps a preposition — refused to him — which is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
Admittance would be refused to him by Mr. Amar. — would be refused is conditional, or future-in-the-past. The active sentence carries no such modality, and a voice change may not add any.
(b)
Admittance shall be refused to him by Mr. Amar. — shall be refused pushes the event into the future. Refused reports a completed past action, so this rewrites the tense rather than converting the voice.
(d)
Admittance will be refused to him by Mr. Amar. — will be refused is plain future. The refusal has already happened in the active sentence, so a future auxiliary contradicts the verb it is supposed to translate.

Concept

Changing voice moves an object into the subject slot and rebuilds the verb as be + past participle, with be carrying the tense and number of the original verb.

Refused is simple past, so be surfaces as was — singular, to match admittance — and the participle stays refused.

Ditransitive verbs such as refuse, give, offer and teach have two objects, so they yield two possible passives. Promote the thing and the person needs a preposition: refused to him. Promote the person and it does not.

All four options here are the same string apart from the auxiliary, so the item is purely a tense test: read the active verb, then take the option whose be-form matches it.

Key facts

A passive is be plus the past participle, and be carries the tense of the active verb.
Simple past active becomes was or were plus the past participle: refused becomes was refused.
A ditransitive verb allows two passives, and promoting the thing leaves the person marked by to.

Study next

Passives of ditransitive verbs (give, offer, refuse, lend) and which object to promotePassive forms of the continuous and perfect tensesActive to passive with modals, where the modal itself is retained

Common traps

Picking a future or conditional auxiliary because the passive sounds more formal that way
Looking for He was refused admittance, which is a sound passive of the same sentence but is not among the options
Forgetting that the number of the auxiliary follows the new subject, not the old one

SSC gives one active sentence and four passives that differ in a single element — here the auxiliary alone.

The same simple-past conversion is asked at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.8 (Ishika saw the tiger), while 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.17 runs it for a past continuous.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.