The correct answer is: The Professor asked whether I have cleared my last semester papers.
The Professor is using the present perfect tense in the question, which indicates that he is asking about something that has happened in the past but is still relevant in the present. The past participle “cleared” is used with the auxiliary verb “have” to form the present perfect tense.
The Professor could have also asked:
- Have you cleared your last semester papers yet?
- Have you cleared your last semester papers by now?
- Have you cleared your last semester papers? (without any time reference)
In all of these cases, the Professor is asking about something that has happened in the past but is still relevant in the present.
The other options are incorrect because they use the past tense, which indicates that the Professor is asking about something that happened at a specific point in the past.
- The Professor asked whether I cleared my last semester papers. (past tense)
- The Professor asked if I had cleared my previous semester papers. (past tense)
In these cases, the Professor is asking about something that happened at a specific point in the past, which is not relevant to the present.