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Dr Anne McClaren says that the primary motive was an ethical one. When __________ about the Frozen Ark, she jokingly said: ‘I think Noah would have been proud of this project.’

I've already known that in the blank should be "inteviewed", but don't know why. My first guess was for "was interviewed" and one word for the passive form seemed weird.

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  • Is that "9.6" meant to be in there? What does it mean?
    – SamBC
    Feb 3, 2019 at 16:42
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    Was interviewed only makes sense if it's preceded by a noun or pronoun. Assuming that 9.6 is a mistake, and not the name of a robot or something, then was should not be there. (When she was interviewed is correct, as is when interviewed, but when was interviewed is not.)
    – Jason Bassford
    Feb 3, 2019 at 18:50
  • If 9.6 is the name of an outlet, like a magazine or blog or something, the blank could be "interviewed her".
    – SamBC
    Feb 3, 2019 at 20:32
  • 9.6. was a mistake, sorry, just edited it
    – ziolek
    Feb 3, 2019 at 21:33
  • 9.6 is the question number. It's a multiple-choice question, and the available answers are: A) was interviewed, B) interviewed, C) interviewing, D) was interviewing. The key marks B) as the right answer.
    – Gary Botnovcan
    Feb 5, 2019 at 4:33

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It's a common transformation:

"When A was [verbed], (pronoun) " -> "When [verbed], A [other verb]".

It's idiomatic. There are other similar ones:

"After A was [verbed], (pronoun) [other verb]" -> "After being [verbed], A "

In a consistent grammar, those would work the same way, but they don't.

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