SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 24 September 2024, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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. The chef prepares the meal with great care.

(a)The meal has been prepared with great care by the chef.
(b)The meal will be prepared with great care by the chef.
(c)The meal is prepared with great care by the chef.
(d)The meal was prepared with great care by the chef.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The active verb is prepares — simple present, third person singular. Changing the voice must not change the tense.

Simple present passive = is or are + past participle.
New subject = the object of the active sentence, the meal, singular → is.
Past participle of prepare = prepared.
Old subject moves behind by: by the chef.

The meal is prepared with great care by the chef → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The meal has been prepared with great care by the chef. — Has been prepared is the present perfect passive. It answers the active has prepared, not prepares, so the tense has been changed along with the voice.
(b)
The meal will be prepared with great care by the chef. — Will be prepared is the simple future passive, which belongs to will prepare. Nothing in the stem points to future time.
(d)
The meal was prepared with great care by the chef. — Was prepared is the simple past passive, from prepared. The stem is in the present, so this shifts the sentence back in time.

Concept

Voice change is three fixed moves, and the tense is not one of them.

The object becomes the subject. The verb becomes the correct form of be in the same tense plus the past participle. The old subject follows by.

Adverbial phrases such as with great care stay attached to the verb and do not move.

The form of be is chosen by the new subject. Here the meal is singular, so is prepared, even though a plural object would have given are prepared.

All four options are grammatical passive sentences. What separates them is tense alone, which is why identifying prepares as simple present settles the item before the options are read.

Key facts

Simple present passive: is or are + past participle.
Present perfect passive: has or have been + past participle.
Simple past passive: was or were + past participle.
Simple future passive: will be + past participle.

Study next

Passive forms of each tense, written out as a tablePassive of sentences with two objects, such as gave him a bookPassive of imperatives and of questions beginning with who or by whom

Common traps

Changing the tense while changing the voice, which is what three of these four options invite.
Making be agree with the chef instead of with the new subject the meal.
Moving with great care to the end after by the chef, which is not what the option prints.

SSC gives a one-clause active sentence and prints four passives that differ only in tense. The same simple-present-to-passive change is asked at 12 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.10, where Sonam does not like bananas becomes Bananas are not liked by Sonam.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.