【明報專訊】MoMo: Why were you absent yesterday? Our coach gave us a lot of reminders for our next tennis competition.

Bill: My apologies. I overslept yesterday. What did he say?

MoMo: He reminded us that we needed to practice constantly in order to improve our skills.

Bill: Alright! He said that he had been practicing tennis for 10 years. I guess that's why he played so well.

MoMo: Unlike you, he doesn't shirk his responsibilities! Our coach also warned that he would penalise absentees heavily. Remember to attend the class next weekend.

Bill: Sure. I won't oversleep again. Offending our coach is like playing with fire.

We use a reporting verb (e.g. say, tell, ask, etc.) in a reported sentence. If the reporting verb is in the past tense, we change the tenses in the reported speech.

(1) If the original sentence is in the simple present tense, the reported sentence will be in the simple past tense.

e.g. ''Pat likes running.'' MoMo said. → MoMo said Pat liked running.

(2) If the original sentence is in the simple past tense, the reported sentence will be in the past perfect tense.

e.g. ''Bill overslept.'' MoMo said. → MoMo said Bill had overslept.

(3) If the original sentence is in the present perfect continuous tense, the reported sentence will be in the past perfect continuous tense.

e.g. ''I have been playing tennis for 5 years.'' MoMo said. →

MoMo said she had been playing tennis for 5 years.

■Gear up

Change the direct speech into reported speech.

(1) ''I visited my parents at the weekend.'' She said.

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(2) ''He works in a bank.'' She said.

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(3) ''Dr Panda has been working on the project since 2018.'' She said.

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(Answers on next text)

■Glossary

oversleep (v) 睡過頭

constantly (adv) 時常地

responsibility (n) 責任

offend (v) 冒犯

[Smarties' Power English 第262期]