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Question

Difficulty: HardDirect and Indirect (Reported) Speech

Which of the following options correctly renders the sentence below in reported speech?

'Why did you not inform the bursar that the examination materials had arrived this morning?' the registrar asked the administrative officer.

  1. The registrar asked the administrative officer why he had not informed the bursar that the examination materials had arrived that morning.Answer
  2. B
    The registrar asked the administrative officer why he did not inform the bursar that the examination materials had arrived this morning.
  3. C
    The registrar asked the administrative officer why had he not informed the bursar that the examination materials had arrived that morning.
  4. D
    The registrar asked the administrative officer why he has not informed the bursar that the examination materials had arrived this morning.

Answer

The registrar asked the administrative officer why he had not informed the bursar that the examination materials had arrived that morning.
The sentence accurately converts direct speech to indirect speech by changing the simple past 'did not inform' to past perfect 'had not informed', modifying the demonstrative phrase 'this morning' to 'that morning', and applying normal statement word order ('why he had not informed').

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the reporting verb and original clause structure.
The reporting verb 'asked' is in the past tense, and the direct clause is a WH-question containing simple past negative ('did not inform') and a time reference ('this morning').
Past reporting verbs require tense backshift and adjustment of demonstratives and word order.
2
Backshift the main verb tense and adjust time expressions.
Simple past 'did not inform' backshifts to past perfect 'had not informed'. The past perfect 'had arrived' remains unchanged. 'This morning' becomes 'that morning'.
Reporting events from a past point of perspective requires shifting past simple to past perfect and proximal time expressions to distal ones.
3
Apply declarative word order for indirect questions.
The inverted question order 'why did you not inform' becomes normal subject-verb statement order 'why he had not informed'.
Indirect questions do not use auxiliary inversion or question marks.

Key Concept

Tense backshift, word order transformation, and time adverbial adjustments in reported questions
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Topics

Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech

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