NDA (I) 2025 General Ability Test · Question 8 of 150

Correct — B, The teacher said to her students, 'Why were you quiet in the previous class?' Turning indirect into direct reverses the shifts: the reporting verb becomes 'said to', the pronoun 'they' becomes 'you', the past-perfect 'had been quiet' returns to the simple past 'were quiet', and the article 'the' is kept.

• (a)The teacher asked her students, "Why were they keeping quiet in the previous class?" — Keeps 'asked' and the third-person 'they'; direct speech to the students needs 'said to' and 'you'.
• (c)The teacher said to her students, "Why had you been quiet in the previous class?" — Keeps the past-perfect 'had you been', which should revert to the simple past 'were you' in the original words.
• (d)The teacher said to her students, "Why were you quiet in previous class?" — Drops the article — 'in previous class' should be 'in the previous class'.

Indirect-to-direct conversion undoes the back-shift, so the past perfect returns to the simple past, while second-person pronouns and quotation are restored.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Convert to direct speech: He told me that he had finished his work.

  • (a)He said to me, "I have finished my work."
  • (b)He said to me, "I had finished my work."
  • (c)He asked me, "Have you finished your work?"
  • (d)He said to me, "He finished his work."

  Answer(a) 'I have finished my work.' — the past-perfect reverts to the present perfect and 'he' becomes 'I'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  In direct speech, a reported wh-question ('asked why...') reverts to the reporting verb —

  • (a)said to
  • (b)told
  • (c)replied
  • (d)ordered

  Answer(a) said to — a wh-report reverts to 'said to' with the original question.