CYO Summative Exam Practice 2026 – Your All-in-One Guide to Exam Success!

Active voice shows the subject doing the action to something else. In the sentence The committee approved the proposal, the committee is the one performing the verb and the proposal is the receiver, which makes the action direct and clear. The other sentence uses a form that shifts emphasis to the recipient with was approved by the committee, which is how passive voice is built. The sentence The committee was approving the proposal uses be + -ing, signaling ongoing action, which is still the subject doing the action but focuses on process rather than a completed action. The final option would read as if the proposal were doing the action to the committee, which changes who is performing the action and isn’t the standard active construction. So the straightforward, completed action in simple past best illustrates active voice.