Question

Poet: “Who art thou?”
Rain: “I am the poem of the earth.”
Poet: "Why have you come here?"
Rain: "To beautify my origin. I also want to give life to unborn seeds."

A poet asked the rain __________[1][21]. The rain answered that ________[2][22]. The poet again asked it __________[3][23]. The rain replied that ________[4][24]. It further told that _________[5][25].

Read the following dialogue between the poet and the rain, and fill in the blank [2] with the most appropriate option.
a. It has been the poem of the earth
b. It was the poem of the earth
c. I was the poem of the earth
d. I am the poem of the earth

Answer 1

Hint: Read and understand what the dialogue is about. Here, we need to convert direct to indirect speech. Go through the options and choose the one which agrees to the tense of the passage written in Indirect speech.

Complete answer: Direct speech repeats, or quotes, the exact words spoken. Reported or indirect speech is usually used to talk about the past, so we normally change the tense of the words spoken.
Let us analyze the options given to us in this question -
Option (a.), 'It has been the poem of the earth', refers to ‘present perfect tense’.
Therefore, option (a.) is incorrect as in indirect speech, the simple present tense in the given sentence will be changed to simple past tense.
Option (b.), ‘It was the poem of the earth', refers to ‘simple past tense.’.
Therefore, option (b.) is correct as it uses the right pronouns in indirect speech and is also in simple past tense.
Option (c.), ‘I was the poem of the earth', refers to ‘I’.
Therefore, option (c.) is incorrect as the first person pronoun ‘I’ changes to third person pronoun ‘it’ in indirect speech.
Option (d.), ‘I am the poem of the earth', refers to ‘simple present tense’ and uses ‘I’.
Therefore, option (d.) is incorrect as the first person pronoun ‘I’ changes to third person pronoun ‘it’ in indirect speech. Also, the sentence should be in the simple past.
Therefore, option b is correct.

Note: The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.