This question tests the conversion of a simple past active voice sentence into its passive voice form. The original sentence, "The teacher punished the boy," is in the active voice, simple past tense (Subject + simple past verb + Object).
To transform a simple past active sentence into passive voice, the structure is: Object + was/were + past participle + (by Subject). In this sentence, "the boy" is the object, so it becomes the subject of the passive sentence. Since "the boy" is singular, it takes "was." The past participle of "punish" is "punished."
- B: "The boy is punished" is incorrect because it uses the simple present passive tense, changing the original tense.
- C: "The boy has punished" is incorrect as it is in the present perfect active voice, not passive, and changes the tense.
- D: "The boy punished" is incorrect because it remains in the simple past active voice, failing to convert to passive.
Thus, A: "The boy was punished" is the correct passive voice construction. It accurately shifts the focus from the teacher (the doer) to the boy (the recipient of the action) while maintaining the simple past tense.