SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 19 September 2025, Shift 2 · English Comprehension · Question 12 of 100

We transcribed this text from the pictures on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; the answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 13 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. From 2025 the candidate response sheet prints every question and option as a picture, so the text here is transcribed from those pictures for this shift and checked against them independently; where the layout carries meaning, the picture is shown as well. Each answer is the key SSC colour-marked on that sheet. SSC released a tentative key for challenge and later its final one, both only to candidates behind a login, and the sheet does not say which of the two it carries. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

Change the following from active to passive: The authorities are to close the road.

(a)The road to be closed by the authorities.
(b)The road is to be closed by the authorities.
(c)The road has to be closed by the authorities.
(d)The road will be closed by the authorities.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The active verb is are to close: be + to-infinitive, which expresses a plan or an official arrangement.

In the passive, the object, the road, becomes the subject, and the infinitive turns passive: to close → to be closed.

The be-verb stays but agrees with the new singular subject: are → is.

Result: The road is to be closed by the authorities → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The road to be closed by the authorities. — No finite verb. The road to be closed by the authorities is a phrase, not a sentence: without is, nothing carries the tense.
(c)
The road has to be closed by the authorities. — has to swaps the construction: it expresses necessity, where are to expresses an arrangement. A voice change keeps the original auxiliary and changes only its form.
(d)
The road will be closed by the authorities. — will be closed is a plain future passive. It drops the be-to form and with it the sense of a fixed arrangement; the passive of are to close keeps is to.

Concept

Be + to-infinitive — The President is to address the nation tonight, You are to report at nine — expresses an arrangement, a plan or an instruction.

To make it passive, keep the be-verb and turn the infinitive passive: to + be + past participle. The authorities are to close the road → The road is to be closed by the authorities.

The be-verb then agrees with the new subject. A plural doer, the authorities, gives way to a singular subject, the road, so are becomes is.

Options (c) and (d) are grammatical passive sentences. They fail because each changes the verb the active sentence used, not because of their grammar.

Key facts

Be + to-infinitive expresses an arrangement or instruction: The President is to address the nation tonight.
The passive of be to + verb is be to + be + past participle: is to be closed.
A voice change keeps the auxiliary and adjusts only its number to the new subject.

Study next

Passive of have to and must: We have to say little → Little has to be saidPassive of modal perfects: must have tampered with → must have been tampered withPassive of be going to: They are going to build a bridge → A bridge is going to be built

Common traps

Keeping are because the active sentence had it, though the new subject, the road, is singular
Picking will be closed or has to be closed because they sound natural, without checking that the verb itself has changed

24 Sep 2024, 12:30, English Q.12 runs the same pattern with have to: We have to say little in this matter becomes Little has to be said in this matter. The semi-modal stays, and have becomes has for the new singular subject.

11 Sep 2024, 16:00, English Q.5 does it with a modal: He must deliver pizza → Pizza must be delivered by him.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Active and passive voice — all 132 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.