Question

Change the direct narration into indirect narration-
The teacher said to the students, “You must study hard for the test on comprehension.”
a) The teacher told the students that they must study hard for the test on comprehension.
b) The teacher told the students that they had to study hard for the test on comprehension.
c) The teacher told the students that they could study for the test on comprehension.
d) The teacher told the students that they are going to study hard for the test on comprehension.

Answer 1

Hint: The given sentence is in a speech format and is being said to another person. We have to change the form of this speech.

Complete answer:
 The given sentence is being said by the teacher to the students. Indirect speech is a means of expressing the content of statements, questions, or other utterances, without quoting them explicitly as is done in direct speech. For example, He said “I’m coming” is direct speech, whereas He said he was coming is indirect speech. As the given sentence in the direct speech is in the simple present tense, we will change it to simple past tense in the indirect speech.
Now, let us examine all the given options to find out the correct answer :
Option ‘a’ – it is an incorrect option as it is in the simple future tense, which is not needed here.
Option ‘b’ – it is the correct option as we often use ‘had’ with an infinitive verb instead of ‘must’ in the indirect speech.
Option ‘c’ – it is an incorrect option as ‘could’ is the past tense of ‘can’. Also, ‘could’ is used for possibilities or while explaining a hypothetical situation.
Option ‘d’ – it is also an incorrect option because the teacher told the students that they are going to study hard for the test on comprehension.’ Is incorrect as ‘is going’ is used to form the sentence in the present continuous tense.
Hence, option ‘b’ is the correct option.

Note:
In such types of questions, you must keep in mind that you don’t change the meaning of the already given sentence. Even the slightest meaning shouldn't be changed. The tone and context of the speech matter the most here.