2018 · Q112
In the following items, each sentence is given in Direct Speech followed by four options in Indirect Speech. Select the option that most appropriately expresses the sentence in Indirect Speech and mark your response on the Answer Sheet accordingly.
The manager said to his colleagues, “We have received a serious threat to our business now and we need to act to face it.”
EnglishNarration
- AThe manager told his colleagues that they had received a serious threat to our business then and they needed to act to face it
- BThe manager told his colleagues that they received a serious threat to their business then and they needed to act to face it
- CThe manager said his colleagues that they had received a serious threat to our business then and they needed to act to face it
- DThe manager told his colleagues that they had received a serious threat to their business at that time and they needed to act to face it
Explanation
The present perfect ‘we have received’ becomes the past perfect ‘they had received’. ‘Our business’ becomes ‘their business’, and ‘now’ becomes ‘then’. Only option (d) makes all three shifts correctly. Hence option (d) is correct.