Fill in the blank with the most appropriate option.

Aunt Petunia was ______ a box of after-dinner mints.

Question

Question

This question was previously asked in

SSC MTS (2022) Official Paper (Held On: 16 Jun, 2023 Shift 2)

Answer 1

The correct answer is "passing around".

Key Points

The sentence is in the past continuous tense, indicating an ongoing action in the past.
"Passing around" is the correct form of the phrasal verb "pass around" in the present continuous tense, which is used to describe ongoing actions.
The -ing form of the verb "pass" is needed because it is being used as a gerund, which acts as a noun in the sentence.
- Also, the correct adverb in the given sentence is "around" which means "in different places."(आस-पास)
  - Example: I know she is around somewhere here.
Aunt Petunia was actively engaged in the action of passing around the mints.

Hence, the correct answer is option 3.

Additional Information

Option 1, "passing round", is grammatically incorrect because it combines the present participle "passing" with the past tense "round".
Option 2, "passed around", is in the past tense, which does not match the ongoing nature of the action described in the sentence.
Option 4, "passed away", is a completely different phrasal verb that means "to die".(दम टूटना)