In this English grammar question on voice, select the passive form of the sentence "People criticized him for not offering to pay for the damage".

Introduction / Context:
This item focuses on changing an active sentence in the simple past tense into its correct passive form. The sentence describes people criticizing a person for not offering to pay for damage. In such questions, you must keep the time of the action, the meaning, and the grammatical aspect unchanged while shifting the focus from the doers of the action to the receiver of the action. Here, people is a general subject and not important as an agent, while him is the important part and needs to become the subject of the passive sentence. The correct option will therefore show him as the grammatical subject and will use the simple past passive construction was criticized.

Given Data / Assumptions:
The sentence provides the following information.

• Original sentence: People criticized him for not offering to pay for the damage.
• Tense: simple past (criticized).
• Subject: people (general, indefinite agent).
• Object: him (the person who received criticism).
• Reason clause: for not offering to pay for the damage, which must remain unchanged.

Concept / Approach:
When converting an active sentence to passive voice, the object of the active sentence becomes the subject of the passive sentence. For simple past tense, the passive form uses was or were plus the past participle of the verb. Because the new subject is singular (he), the correct auxiliary is was. The phrase for not offering to pay for the damage should be preserved exactly, because it explains the reason for the criticism. Since the agent people is general and not important, it is normally omitted in the passive sentence, which is a standard practice in English when the doer is obvious, unknown, or unimportant.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
To verify, mentally transform the passive sentence back into active voice: He was criticized for not offering to pay for the damage becomes People criticized him for not offering to pay for the damage when we reintroduce a natural subject people and adjust pronouns. This matches the original sentence perfectly in tense and meaning. No additional aspect such as continuous or perfect is added, so the transformation is accurate. If any option introduces present tense or perfect aspect, it cannot be correct for a simple past original.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option A uses has been criticized, which is present perfect and does not match the simple past criticized in the original sentence. Option C uses is criticized, which is simple present, again changing the time reference. Option D is grammatically incorrect because is being criticizing mixes progressive aspect with the ing form of a verb that should appear as a past participle criticized. Option E uses was being criticized, which is past continuous passive and suggests an ongoing process rather than a completed act of criticism. Only option B gives a simple past passive form that preserves the original meaning.

Common Pitfalls:
Students often confuse the different passive forms in past tenses, especially was criticized, has been criticized, and was being criticized. The safest method is to first identify the exact tense of the active verb and then apply the correct be form with the past participle. Learners also sometimes forget to adjust object pronouns to subject pronouns in passive sentences, but here the option already uses he correctly. Another mistake is to keep unnecessary agents like people when they are not needed, which can sound awkward in English. Always check that the passive sentence reads naturally and that the action is clearly completed in the correct time frame.

Final Answer:
The correct passive sentence is: He was criticized for not offering to pay for the damage.