GATE 2020 EE GA Q.2: solution and answer

Official answer: BSource: Official answer key, GATE 2020 EE (IIT Delhi)

1. The blank comes right after the verb prohibit, so the answer depends on which pattern prohibit takes. That is a matter of usage.

2. Verb pattern: prohibit takes an object, then from, then a gerund (the -ing form): prohibit someone from doing something. In the passive the object becomes the subject and from + gerund stays: someone is prohibited from doing something.

3. The sentence is passive (People were prohibited ...), so the blank needs from + gerund: prohibited from parking.

4. (A) to park: standard modern English does not put a to-infinitive after prohibit. That pattern belongs to forbid (were forbidden to park). (A) is wrong.

5. (C) parking: prohibit takes a bare gerund only when the activity itself is the object, as in the active The rules prohibit parking near the entrance. Here the people are the ones prohibited, so after the passive People were prohibited you cannot drop from. (C) is wrong.

6. (D) to have parked: a perfect infinitive places the parking before the prohibition, which makes no sense for a ban on future action. It is also the infinitive pattern that prohibit does not take. (D) is wrong.

7. The correct sentence is: People were prohibited from parking their vehicles near the entrance of the main administrative building. The answer is (B).