Question

Difficulty: HardActive and Passive Voice Transformation

Read the active sentence provided below and complete its corresponding passive transformation by filling in the blank with the exact grammatical verb phrase required.

Answer:Active sentence: 'The ad hoc committee ought to have followed up on the auditor's queries before submitting the final report.'

Passive sentence: 'The auditor's queries 【ought to have been followed up on】 by the ad hoc committee before submitting the final report.'

Answer

ought to have been followed up on
The active sentence uses the semi-modal perfect verb construction 'ought to have' combined with the phrasal-prepositional verb 'follow up on'. Converting this structure into passive voice requires maintaining the modal auxiliary 'ought to have', introducing the passive auxiliary 'been', placing the past participle 'followed', and strictly retaining all associated prepositional particles ('up on'). This yields the exact verb phrase 'ought to have been followed up on'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the active verb structure.
The active sentence contains the semi-modal perfect verb phrase 'ought to have' followed by the three-word phrasal-prepositional verb 'followed up on'.
Identifying both the exact modal perfect aspect and all attached verb particles is required to form an equivalent passive phrase.
2
Apply the modal perfect passive transformation rule.
The modal active pattern 'ought to have + past participle' converts to 'ought to have + been + past participle' ('ought to have been followed').
Passive voice in modal perfect constructions requires inserting the auxiliary past participle 'been' between 'have' and the main past participle.
3
Re-attach all phrasal particles to maintain prepositional integrity.
Combining the passive modal form with the particles yields 'ought to have been followed up on'.
Phrasal verbs must retain their particle components ('up on') in passive voice to prevent semantic breakdown or grammatical error.

Key Concept

Passive transformation of semi-modal perfect verbs with phrasal-prepositional structures
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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