Read the conversation between a teacher and student and complete the passage that follows.
The biology teacher had instructed Sameer to draw the diagram of a bacterial cell and asked him (a) ……………………………………………a blank sheet. Sameer respectfully answered that he had drawn the diagram but (b) ……………………………………………………to the naked eye.
Answer
The biology teacher had instructed Sameer to draw the diagram of a bacterial cell and asked him (a) why he had submitted a blank sheet. Sameer respectfully answered that he had drawn the diagram but (b) the teacher couldn’t see it because it is not visible to the naked eye.
Explanation
(a) Since we are converting the passage from direct speech to indirect speech, we change the phrase that was in present tense to past perfect tense , so we change it to ‘why he had submitted’.
We change sentences from present tense to past perfect tense by adding a ‘has/had ’ in front of the past participle form of the verb. Here, the ‘why did you submit’ changes to ‘why he had submitted’ . Submitted is the past participle verb used.
(b) Again, since we are converting the sentence from direct speech to indirect, ‘can’t see it because it is not visible’ changes to ‘the teacher couldn’t see it because it is not visible’ as it is more grammatically correct to use in a sentence.
