Question

Change from direct to indirect speech:
The teacher said, “The sun is at the center of the solar system.”
A) The teacher said that the sun was at the center of the solar system.
B) The teacher said that the sun is at the center of the solar system.
C) The teacher said the sun is at the center of the solar system.
D) None of the above

Answer 1

Hint: This question is very direct as it talks about the conversion of the direct speech into indirect speech. So, the rule has to be followed for the conversion.

Complete answer:
Direct speech is a sentence in which exact words are spoken and are put under inverted commas and indirect speech in a sentence is usually to talk about the past, so we normally change the tense of the spoken words. For example: She said "I'm coming" is direct speech, whereas She said that she was coming is indirect speech.

Option A) The teacher said that the sun was at the center of the solar system – is an incorrect answer because “The sun is at the center of the solar system” is a universal truth and when we have a case of universal truth tense doesn't change. So, this is an incorrect answer because here, was is used that is the past tense.

Option B) The teacher said that the sun is at the center of the solar system – is the correct answer because when we talk about universal facts then the tense remains the same. So, this is the correct answer.

Option C) The teacher said the sun is at the center of the solar system – is an incorrect answer because here in this option conjunction ‘that’ is not used. For converting direct into indirect speech, it is necessary to use ‘that’. So, this is an incorrect answer.

Option D) None of the above – this is an invalid option because answer lies in option B.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘B’.

Note:Indirect speech is used to report what somebody has said without inverted commas. 'That' conjunction is used to make the sentence in indirect speech. In the case of universal truth i.e. “The sun is at the center of the solar system”, tense does not change. Hence, option B is the correct answer.