Passing on a claim you do not vouch for
It is now generally accepted that the original forecast was far too optimistic.
The company is said to have known about the fault for several months.Each sentence passes on a claim while quietly declining to vouch for it. One small grammatical word is missing: an empty subject, the link into the infinitive, or the word that introduces the reported clause. Write that single word in the gap. Notice that no source is ever named - in this register that is deliberate, not careless.
1. ___ is widely assumed that the two firms will merge before the summer.
2. ___ is thought to be little appetite in the department for another restructuring.
3. The finance director is believed ___ have approved the payments himself.
4. Two board members are understood to ___ resigned shortly before the audit began.
5. It is alleged ___ the figures were adjusted after the deadline had passed.Show the answers
1. It
2. There
3. to
4. have
5. thatItems 1 and 5 begin with an empty subject that carries no meaning at all: it holds the subject position open so that the reported clause can arrive at the end, where the reader expects the news. Item 2 looks identical but reports the existence of something, and existence takes the other empty subject - the two are not interchangeable, and swapping them produces a sentence no native writer would accept. In items 3 and 4 the subject of the reported clause has been lifted forward into the reporting frame, so what follows is an infinitive rather than a full clause; item 4 needs one extra auxiliary because the resignations happened before the report was made. The participles differ across the five items - one is neutral, one belongs to insider briefing, one carries a legal accusation - but every one of them removes the source, which is the whole reason these structures dominate press reporting and internal briefings.