Question

Change the following statement into passive voice.

Cigarette smoking causes two million deaths annually in the industrial states.

• A. Cigarette smoking has been causing two million deaths annually in the industrial states.
• B. Two million deaths are caused annually by cigarette smoking in the industrial states.
• C. Two million deaths are being caused by cigarette smoking annually in the industrial states.
• D. Two million deaths have been caused annually by cigarette smoking in the industrial states.

Answer 1

Answer: (B)

Two million deaths are caused annually by cigarette smoking in the industrial states.

An action in a sentence can be represented in two ways, namely active and passive voice.

The passive voice always uses the past participle form of the main verb irrespective of any tense. Only the auxiliary verbs depend upon the sentence given in the active voice.

The option B is correct as the given sentence is in the active voice and to transform it into passive voice the subject of the given sentence
(Cigarette smoking) comes in the place of the object (two million deaths) and vice-versa.

Also, as the given sentence is in the simple present tense, the helping verb 'are' is followed by the past participle form of the main verb (cause) and 'annually' comes after the verb as the meaning changes when we put it somewhere else in the structure.

Options A, C, and D are wrong as the subject is not in its place, the given sentence is not in the present continuous tense, and the given sentence is not in the present perfect tense respectively.

The correct answer is B)Two million deaths are caused annually by cigarette smoking in the industrial states.