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Question

Difficulty: MediumDirect and Indirect (Reported) Speech

The art curator instructed her assistant, "Do not move these delicate sculptures until the climate control system has been fully repaired." Which of the following options correctly renders this statement in indirect speech?

  1. The art curator instructed her assistant not to move those delicate sculptures until the climate control system had been fully repaired.Answer
  2. B
    The art curator instructed her assistant not to move these delicate sculptures until the climate control system has been fully repaired.
  3. C
    The art curator instructed her assistant that she should not move these delicate sculptures until the climate control system has been fully repaired.
  4. D
    The art curator instructed her assistant to not move those delicate sculptures until the climate control system has been fully repaired.

Answer

The statement is correctly reported as: The art curator instructed her assistant not to move those delicate sculptures until the climate control system had been fully repaired.
The correct transformation properly converts the direct imperative 'Do not move' into 'not to move', changes the demonstrative 'these' to 'those', and backshifts the present perfect verb 'has been' to past perfect 'had been' to agree with the past reporting verb 'instructed'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Convert the negative imperative command into indirect speech
The direct command 'Do not move' becomes 'not to move'.
Negative imperatives in direct speech are reported using 'not' followed by the to-infinitive verb.
2
Adjust the demonstrative pronoun according to psychological/spatial distance
'these delicate sculptures' becomes 'those delicate sculptures'.
Demonstratives change from near ('these') to distant ('those') when reported in the past.
3
Backshift the tense of the subordinate clause verb
'has been fully repaired' shifts to 'had been fully repaired'.
Because the reporting verb ('instructed') is in the past tense, present perfect tense must shift to past perfect tense.

Key Concept

Tense backshift, demonstrative pronouns, and reporting imperatives in indirect speech
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Topics

Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech

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