Difficulty: Easy
Correct Answer: The wounded men were being helped by some girls.
Explanation:
Introduction / Context:
This question tests your understanding of the transformation between Active and Passive Voice in English grammar. You are given the active sentence "Some girls were helping the wounded men" and asked to choose the option that correctly expresses the same idea in Passive Voice without changing the tense, meaning, or focus of the sentence.
Given Data / Assumptions:
Concept / Approach:
To change a sentence from active to passive voice, we make the object of the active sentence the subject of the passive sentence. For past continuous tense, the passive structure is: was / were being + past participle of the main verb. In this sentence, helping is the present participle of help. Its past participle is helped. The phrase some girls will appear in the passive as the agent introduced by by, but it can sometimes be omitted when the agent is not important. Here, the exam options include the agent, so we must preserve it correctly.
Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Identify the object in the active sentence: the wounded men. This will become the subject in the passive form.
Step 2: Keep the tense as past continuous. The past continuous passive uses were being + past participle for a plural subject.
Step 3: Change the main verb helping to its past participle helped.
Step 4: Place the original subject some girls after the preposition by to show the agent.
Step 5: Combine these elements to form the passive: The wounded men were being helped by some girls.
Verification / Alternative check:
To verify, we can reverse the passive sentence back to active: The wounded men were being helped by some girls becomes Some girls were helping the wounded men, which matches the original sentence exactly in tense and meaning. This confirms that the transformation is correct. None of the other options, when converted back to active voice, will give us the same original sentence with correct tense and roles.
Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option A: The wounded men were helping some girls changes the roles; now the wounded men are doing the helping, which reverses the meaning.
Option C: The wounded men are being helped by some girls shifts the tense to present continuous, not past continuous, and therefore is incorrect.
Option D: The wounded men received help from some girls changes the tense to simple past (received), not past continuous, and loses the sense of ongoing action.
Option E: Help was being given to some girls by the wounded men again reverses the roles; the wounded men become the helpers instead of the ones being helped.
Common Pitfalls:
A common mistake is to ignore the tense of the original sentence and simply choose any passive-looking option. Another frequent error is to mix up who is performing the action and who is receiving it. Always identify the subject, verb, and object first, then apply the correct passive structure: object + appropriate form of be + past participle + by + original subject. Pay special attention to continuous tenses, which require being in the passive form (were being helped).
Final Answer:
The correct passive form of the sentence is "The wounded men were being helped by some girls."
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