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Question

Difficulty: MediumDirect and Indirect (Reported) Speech

Read the direct speech statement below and complete the reported speech version by filling in the missing expressions.

Answer:Direct Speech: The meteorologist warned the residents, "The severe storm will hit the coastal towns tomorrow."

Reported Speech: The meteorologist warned the residents that the severe storm 【would hit】 the coastal towns 【the following day】.

Answer

The reported speech sentence is correctly completed with 'would hit' for the first blank and 'the following day' (or 'the next day') for the second blank.
When converting from direct speech to indirect speech with a past reporting verb ('warned'), the modal auxiliary 'will' undergoes tense backshift to 'would', and the temporal adverb 'tomorrow' shifts to 'the following day' or 'the next day'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the tense backshift requirement for the auxiliary verb.
The modal verb 'will' in direct speech backshifts to 'would' in reported speech when the reporting verb ('warned') is in the past tense.
When converting direct speech into indirect speech with a past tense reporting verb, future modal auxiliaries backshift to their past counterparts.
2
Determine the required adverbial time transformation.
The time expression 'tomorrow' changes to 'the following day' or 'the next day' in reported speech.
Adverbs of time referring to future events relative to the original utterance must shift to reflect the altered point of reference in indirect speech.

Key Concept

Tense Backshift and Adverbial Transformations in Reported Speech
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Topics

Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech

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