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Difficulty: Very hardActive and Passive Voice Transformation

Which of the following options represents the correct passive voice transformation of the active sentence: 'Should the parliamentary committee not have handed down a harsher verdict on the fraudulent board members?'

  1. Should a harsher verdict not have been handed down on the fraudulent board members by the parliamentary committee?Answer
  2. B
    Should a harsher verdict not have been handed on the fraudulent board members by the parliamentary committee?
  3. C
    Should a harsher verdict on the fraudulent board members not had been handed down by the parliamentary committee?
  4. D
    Should a harsher verdict not be handed down on the fraudulent board members by the parliamentary committee?

Answer

Should a harsher verdict not have been handed down on the fraudulent board members by the parliamentary committee?
The correct answer accurately converts the active sentence into the passive voice by placing the object 'a harsher verdict' after the inverted modal auxiliary 'Should', maintaining the exact modal perfect passive structure ('not have been handed down'), retaining the particle 'down', and keeping the original past aspect intact.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the core grammatical elements of the active sentence
Subject = 'the parliamentary committee'; Verb Phrase = 'should... not have handed down' (modal perfect interrogative + phrasal verb); Direct Object = 'a harsher verdict'; Prepositional Complement = 'on the fraudulent board members'.
Accurate breakdown of clause elements is essential before syntactically re-ordering into passive structure.
2
Promote the direct object to subject position while maintaining interrogative word order
The direct object 'a harsher verdict' immediately follows the auxiliary verb 'Should' to form the passive subject position.
In passive interrogatives, the initial auxiliary remains inverted before the new passive subject.
3
Transform the active modal perfect verb phrase into its corresponding passive form
'should not have handed down' becomes 'should [subject] not have been handed down'.
Modal perfect passive requires 'modal + have + been + past participle', preserving the complete phrasal particle 'down'.
4
Attach the agentive by-phrase and verify feature preservation
'by the parliamentary committee' is added at the end, yielding: 'Should a harsher verdict not have been handed down on the fraudulent board members by the parliamentary committee?'
Ensures that tense, aspect, mood, negativity, and full phrasal verb particles are strictly preserved.

Key Concept

Passive Transformation of Modal Perfect Interrogatives with Phrasal Verbs
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Active and Passive Voice Transformation

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