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Question

Difficulty: MediumDirect and Indirect (Reported) Speech

Complete the reported speech transformation below by filling in the missing grammatical forms in the blanks.

Answer:Direct: The immigration officer asked the traveler, "Have you declared all the currency in your luggage today?"
Indirect: The immigration officer asked the traveler whether he 【had】 declared all the currency in his luggage 【that day】.

Answer

blank_1: had, blank_2: that day
In converting a direct question into indirect speech governed by a past-tense reporting verb ('asked'), the present perfect auxiliary 'have' backshifts to the past perfect auxiliary 'had', and the present time adverbial 'today' shifts to 'that day'.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the appropriate tense backshift for the present perfect verb form in reported speech.
The present perfect auxiliary verb 'have' backshifts to the past perfect form 'had'.
When the reporting verb ('asked') is in the past tense, present perfect forms must backshift to the past perfect tense in reported speech.
2
Determine the required adverbial change of time from direct to indirect speech.
The temporal adverbial 'today' changes to 'that day'.
Time expressions referring to the present moment must shift to reflect the past perspective of the reported event.

Key Concept

Tense backshift and time adverbial adjustments in Indirect (Reported) Speech
Estimated Time:1m 0s
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Topics

Direct and Indirect (Reported) Speech

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