Question

Change the following statement into passive voice-
Those who worked hard seldom obtained good marks.
a) Good marks were seldom being obtained by those who worked hard.
b) Good marks were seldom obtained by those who worked hard.
c) Seldom had good marks being obtained by those who work hard.
d) Good marks were seldom obtained by those who worked hard.

Answer 1

Hint: Passive voice is a form or set of forms of a verb in which the subject undergoes the action of the verb.

Complete answer:
In the given question, we have to transform the given sentence into passive voice. A passive voice construction is a grammatical voice construction that is found in many languages. In a clause with a passive voice, the grammatical subject expresses the theme or patient of the main verb – that is, the person or thing that undergoes the action or has its state changed.
Now, let us examine all the given options to find out the correct answer :
Option ‘a’ – it cannot be the correct answer as it is in the past continuous tense, whereas the given sentence is in the simple past tense. We cannot change the tense of the given statement.
Option ‘b’ – it cannot be the correct answer as it is in the simple present tense.
Option ‘c’ – it cannot be the correct answer as it is in the past perfect tense.
Option ‘d’ – it is the correct answer as: ‘Subject (Those who worked hard) + adverb (seldom) + verb (obtained) + object (good marks)’ changes to:
‘New subject (Good marks) + helping verb (were) + adverb (seldom) + main verb (obtained) + by + new object (those who worked hard)’
The passive form of ‘obtained’ in the simple past tense is ‘were obtained’.
The subject ‘those who worked hard’ is a noun clause, which makes it the correct option. Hence, option ‘d’ is the correct option.

Note:
 The given sentence is in the active voice, as the subject ‘Those who worked hard’ performs an action ‘obtained’ against the object ‘good marks’. If this sentence is changed to passive voice, then the subject, verb, and object are also changed, in order to retain the meaning of the sentence.