Passive question- Manhattan

Stacey Koprince wrote:Hi, guys

If I recall correctly, this question is used as an example in one of the chapters and does not include answer choices - is that right?

Passive voice is a grammatically valid construct - that is, it is not a grammar error. Generally speaking, for both the GMAT and regular written English, active voice is preferred to passive voice, but this does not mean that we always use active instead of passive. It just means that we use active more frequently than we use passive.

Never cross off answer choices just because they are passive. Actual grammatical errors always trump anything else. Then, if you narrow down to two sentences, one passive and one active, and both are completely grammatically correct and maintain the appropriate meaning of the original sentence without ambiguity, then the test will prefer the active option to the passive option. But it is not too common for this to be the final decision-maker on a question.

We use passive voice when we want to emphasize a particular noun as the subject of the sentence. For instance, I might say (active voice):

The dog ate my homework.

But if my teacher had just said to me, "Where is your homework?" I might instead say, "My homework was eaten by my dog."

Generally, I'd prefer the active version ("My dog ate...") but if I have some particular reason to make homework the subject of the sentence, then I have to use passive construction.

Does that make more sense?