SSC CGL 2025 Tier-I · 21 September 2025, Shift 3 · English Comprehension · Question 20 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 11 September 2026.

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Convert the sentence provided below from its passive voice structure to an active voice structure: The decision was expected to be made by the council after further review.

(a)The council expected making a decision after review.
(b)It was expected that the council would make the decision after review.
(c)The council made the decision as was expected.
(d)The council was expected to have made the decision.

Answer

Why

Correct — B. The sentence stacks two verbs. was expected names no one who expected. to be made by the council names the council as the one who makes.

The council is the doer the sentence gives, so it becomes the subject of the active verb: the council would make the decision.

The expectation stays as the frame 'It was expected that', and would keeps the making after the past expectation → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

(a)
The council expected making a decision after review. — The council expected makes the council the one who expects, but in the original the council is the one expected to act. Expected making is also wrong: expect takes a to-infinitive, expected to make.
(c)
The council made the decision as was expected. — The council made the decision turns an expectation into a fact. The original says only that the decision was expected, never that it was made.
(d)
The council was expected to have made the decision. — to have made is a perfect infinitive, presenting the decision as already done. The original's to be made looks ahead to a decision still to come, after further review, and (d) drops that phrase.

Concept

Voice change works on the verb whose doer is named. Here that is the passive infinitive to be made by the council, so its active form is: the council makes the decision.

Was expected has no by-phrase, so there is no doer to move into subject position. It survives as the impersonal frame 'It was expected that ...'.

Inside that frame the time relation must hold: a past expectation, a later action, so would make.

Strictly, option (b) still opens with a passive, 'It was expected'. Making expected active needs a subject the sentence never names. Option (a) tries, and has to pick the council, which changes who is doing the expecting.

No option keeps further from after further review, so that word cannot decide the item.

Key facts

A passive infinitive (to be made by X) turns active as X makes, with X as the subject.
A passive with no by-phrase (was expected) has no doer to promote, so it stays as It was expected that ...
Expect takes a to-infinitive (expected to make), not an -ing form.
Would marks an action that lies in the future as seen from a past moment.

Study next

Passive reporting verbs: is believed to, is said to, is expected toPerfect infinitives in voice change: to have been done against to be doneFuture in the past: would after a past-tense frame

Common traps

Choosing (a) because it removes every passive. It does so by making the council the one who expected, which the original never says.
Choosing (c) for its clean active verb, when made turns an expected decision into a completed one.

The same move, with the reporting verb left passive and the inner action made active, is keyed at 14 Sep 2025, 12:30, English Q.14: 'The company is believed to have acquired the land illegally.'

At 19 Sep 2025, 09:00, English Q.14, 'The protocols were implemented as expected' is a distractor beside the keyed 'Authorities are expected to implement new protocols by fiscal year-end.'

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.

Topic: Active and passive voice — all 92 SSC CGL questions on it, every solved shift.