Question

He asked me what I was reading. “______________________?” he asked me.
Fill in the blank with the most appropriate word.
A) What do you read?
B) What you are reading?
C) What are you reading?
D) What you were reading?

Answer 1

Hint: We have to first understand the speech in which the given sentences are written. Then, accordingly, we have to convert that speech and fill in the blank.
A statement can be written in 2 ways-
i) Direct speech - In the direct speech, you quote the exact words that were said by a third person. The sentence is written in “ “(double inverted commas) and the past form of the reporting verb is added at the beginning or end of the quoted sentence.
ii) Indirect speech - In an indirect speech, the statement is a first-person narration in his/her own words. There is no use of “ “(double inverted commas).

Complete answer:
Sentence 1- He asked me what I was reading.
This sentence is not written in “ “and it’s a first-person narrative. So, we can say, the sentence is written in Indirect speech. The tense used in the sentence is past continuous tense.

Sentence 2- “ ______________________?” he asked me.
The sentence that will occupy the blank is written in “ “. It will be a third-person narrative. Therefore,it will be in direct speech.

In the question, we have to convert the given sentence from indirect speech to direct speech and fill in the blank.
Rules to consider while converting this sentence from Indirect to direct speech -
The blank is to be filled with the exact words that were said to the first person by the third person.
The tense of the sentence will change from past simple, past continuous, past perfect in indirect speech to present simple, present continuous and present perfect respectively, in direct speech.

Let us analyze the given options:
A) Incorrect answer: Sentence 1 has been written in the past continuous tense. Therefore, when we convert it into direct speech, the sentence will be written in the present continuous tense. But, the sentence in option A is written in the simple present tense so it cannot be the answer.
B) Incorrect answer: There is an incorrect formation of the sentence in option B. The being verb(are) is present after the subject(you) which is grammatically incorrect. In an interrogative sentence, the being verb has to be written before the subject and after the interrogative word.
C) Correct answer: This is the correct answer. When we convert a sentence of past continuous tense from indirect speech to direct speech then we write it in the present continuous tense. The sentence in option C is written in present continuous tense and the formation of the interrogative sentence is also appropriate as the being verb is written before the subject.
D) Incorrect answer: The answer has to be in the present continuous tense but the sentence in option D is written in the past continuous tense. Also, the being verb(were) is written after the subject(you) in the sentence which is grammatically incorrect.

Therefore the correct answer is an option (C) i.e, What are you reading?

Note:
- Interrogative sentences in direct speech are written as normal sentences in indirect speech and not as questions.
- When interrogative sentences in direct speech are converted to indirect speech, they do not use ‘that’ .