Grammer Question- expert thoughts please

[vickychaudharycat]

Hi everyone,

I get very confused when i see following type of constructions:

1. certain doctors have reported that the more older people continue to challenge their physical strength with exercising, the less likely their mental functions will diminish.

I chose "the less likely are their mental functions to be diminished".
Can someone explain why the passive construction above is not preferable?

Whats the difference between the meanings of "X is less likely to diminish" and "X is less likely to be diminished"?

Similarly in another SC, i found that "bill is not expected to pass without revision" was correct but "bill is not expected to be passed without being revised" was not.
[does the construction "bill is not expected to pass without revision" mean that bill is doing the action (i.e.. verb pass) and trying to pass something else.]

I believe if a noun is object of a verb, then we should use passive voice because using active voice would change the meaning as in these cases.

Can Ron/Tim/Stacey please help me with these basic grammar concepts? Can you please tell me when it is suitable to use to + verb construction rather than to + verb + ED construction ?

[RonPurewal]

hi --

you say you've seen these constructions in the context of actual SC problems.
per the forum rules, please post...
... the ENTIRE problem(s) from which the constructions came,
and
... the ORIGINAL SOURCE(s) of the problem(s).

(also, please read the forum rules before posting! first thread in this folder.)

we can't comment until you supply these two things. thanks.

[vickychaudharycat]

hi --

you say you've seen these constructions in the context of actual SC problems.
per the forum rules, please post...
... the ENTIRE problem(s) from which the constructions came,
and
... the ORIGINAL SOURCE(s) of the problem(s).

(also, please read the forum rules before posting! first thread in this folder.)

we can't comment until you supply these two things. thanks.

Hi Ron,
I know that the forum forbids us to post problems from some sources due to copyright issues. Therefore I did not post the complete problem. I have just used the structure of the original sentence and modified everything in the construction. SO, the constructions above do not belong to any source now.(not sure if this is an acceptable way of asking a general question. I am sorry if this is not allowed)
I am actually not looking for the complete explanation of these problems, rather I want to understand the basics so that i can solve the problems myself. I want to understand the similar scenarios in which it is suitable to use to + verb construction or to be+ verb + ED construction

[tim]

your generalized question is not specific enough for us to know what you're asking, and we cannot help with your more specific questions without having a context for the problems. can you phrase your question in a way that will allow us to help you?