Question

Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate words.
All relevant documents, duly _____________________, should be _______________ in at the secretary’s office one week before the start of term.
a) Completed/ hand
b) Completing/ handed
c) Completed/ be handed
d) To be completed/ hand

Answer 1

Hint: The sentence is in the passive voice and since the task of submitting has to be done, or has to be achieved we need the words to be in the past tense.

Complete answer:
The sentence is in the passive voice, where the subject, all relevant documents doesn't do the work. This is aided by the use of the auxiliary ‘be’ verb. Moreover, taking into account the context of the sentence, the completion of the task has to be already achieved (the first blank has to have a future tense), thus, the past tense is necessary (in the second blank).
So, let us look into the different options that we have and try to find the correct solution.
Option (a) – completed/ hand-completed is the future perfect tense which indicates that an action will have completed and hand is the root word.
Option (b) – completing/ handed – completing is the present participle form of complete and handed is the past tense of the word hand.
Option (c) – completed/ handed - is the future perfect tense which indicates that an action will have completed and handed is the past tense of the word hand.
Option (d) – to be completed is in future tense and hand is the root word. Hence, this cannot be used here in the sentence. Therefore, as per the explanation the correct solution is option (c).

Note:
As per the sentence, the completion of the task has to be already achieved (the first blank has to have a future perfect tense), thus, the past tense is necessary (in the second blank).