The supervisor demanded to know why the safety protocols ______ during the overnight maintenance shift.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: D. had been ignored
- Step 1: Analyze embedded/indirect question syntax: Embedded questions ('demanded to know why...') use normal declarative word order (subject + verb), NOT inverted question order.
- Step 2: The subject ('the safety protocols') precedes the past perfect passive verb phrase: 'had been ignored'.
Answer
had been ignored.
Why not the others: 'had they been ignored' incorrectly uses inverted question order in an embedded clause; 'were ignored they' misplaces the pronoun; 'they were ignored' introduces a redundant pronoun.
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