SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 25 September 2024, Shift 1 · English Comprehension · Question 8 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. A comic play was performed by the comedian.

(a)The comedian do perform a comic play.
(b)The comedian performance a comic play.
(c)The comedian performed a comic play.
(d)The comedian performs a comic play.

Answer

Why

Correct — C. The given sentence is A comic play was performed by the comedian — was plus the past participle, which is the simple past passive.

A change of voice keeps the tense. The agent in the by-phrase, the comedian, becomes the subject. The passive subject, a comic play, becomes the object. And was performed becomes the simple past performed.

That gives: The comedian performed a comic play, which is option (c).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The comedian do perform a comic play. — do perform uses the base form of the auxiliary, where a third-person singular subject such as the comedian needs does — and the original is past in any case, so no present form can be right.
(b)
The comedian performance a comic play. — performance is a noun, which leaves the sentence with no verb at all. A change of voice moves subject and object about, but never changes the word class of the verb.
(d)
The comedian performs a comic play. — performs is simple present. The passive was performed is simple past, and a voice change must not move the tense.

Concept

Passive to active is a three-step swap.

Take the agent out of the by-phrase and make it the subject. Take the old subject and make it the object. Then rebuild the verb in the same tense as the passive, using the main verb alone.

The tense lives in the passive auxiliary. was or were plus V3 is simple past. is or are plus V3 is simple present. is or are being plus V3 is present continuous. has or have been plus V3 is present perfect.

Here the auxiliary is was, so the active verb is the simple past performed.

All four options already have the comedian as subject and a comic play as object, so nothing in this item turns on word order. The whole question is decided by the verb form.

Key facts

In the active version of a passive sentence, the agent in the by-phrase becomes the subject.
A change of voice never changes the tense, so was performed becomes performed.
Simple past passive is formed with was or were plus the past participle.

Study next

Voice change in the continuous tenses, using is being and was beingVoice change with modal verbs, as in must be done and will be deliveredPassive sentences with no stated agent, where the active needs a subject such as somebody or they

Common traps

Writing the present tense performs because the sentence carries no adverb of time to anchor it.
Treating performance as the verb because it is the word most closely related to perform.

Simple past passive turned active recurs at 11 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.14 with The car was repaired by the mechanic, and at 12 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.4 with The drug pedlar was arrested by the narcotics team.

The present-tense version is at 9 Sep 2024, 09:00, English Q.2, where Lovely tunes are composed by Domnica becomes Domnica composes lovely tunes, and the past continuous version at 11 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.15.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.