7B Reported speech

A Change the direct speech into reported speech.

1 ‘My brother has threatened to quit his job.’
Ruby says
2 ‘Our daughter works as a paparazzo.’
Harry and Meg told me
3 ‘I’ve been reading Dr Pete’s column for years.’
Lucy’s told me
4 ‘I read an interesting article about sharks yesterday.’
Sara said
5 ‘Your firm will be axing 100 jobs next month.’
Fiona told me
6 ‘I’m interviewing my favourite celebrity tomorrow morning.’
Clara said
7 ‘My wife was working for the press a year ago.’
Lewis told us

B Ask each of the questions to a different classmate. Make a note of their name and their answer. Report back to your
partner the questions you asked and the answers your classmates gave you.

Question Name Answer

1 Has your name or photo ever been
printed in a newspaper?

2 Why do people enjoy reading

human-interest stories?

3 Did you watch or read the news

before coming to school?

4 Why is citizen journalism becoming

more popular in your opinion?

5 Can you imagine working as a

correspondent in the future?

6 Should the government have a

right to censor news?

7 What do you think will be front-

page news tomorrow?

C Work in pairs. Decide on a famous person you would like to interview. Imagine that you ask this person the questions
below. Write the answers you think he/she might give.
When and how did you become famous?

What are you working on at the moment?

What has been your greatest achievement in life so far?

Do you have any regrets?

How would your fans describe you?

What will you be doing this time next year?

Solutions 2nd edition  Upper-Intermediate © Oxford University Press • Photocopiable

 7B Reported speech

Aims  To review and practise reported speech

Time  15 minutes + extra time for writing task
Materials  1 handout for each student
• Give each student a handout and tell them to complete task
A. Check answers as a class, taking the opportunity to review
the rules for using reported speech.
Answer Key
1 her brother has threatened to quit his job.
2 their daughter works as a paparazzo.
3 she has been reading Dr Pete’s column for years.
4 she had read an interesting article about sharks the day before.
5 that my firm would be axing 100 jobs the following month.
6 she was interviewing her favourite celebrity the next morning.
7 that his wife had been working for the press a year before.
• Read through the questions in B as a class, checking that
students can remember the news-related vocabulary. Give
them time to ask the questions to their classmates and make
brief notes on answers. Encourage them to expand their
answers by giving reasons and extra details as appropriate.
• Students now get together in pairs and report back what
they asked and found out from their classmates, e.g. ‘I asked
Max if his name or photo had ever been printed in a newspaper
and he said it had. He told me he’d taken part in a race and
the paper had printed a picture of him running.’ Circulate as
students complete the activity, ensuring that reported speech
is being used accurately and prompting correction as required.
• Give students time to complete task C in pairs. Then tell
students to swap their handouts with another pair and read
each other’s completed interviews. From the answers given,
they should try and guess who the famous person is.
• In pairs, students write a short magazine article based on the
interview, using reported speech. If there is insufficient time
in class, students can write the article for homework.

Solutions 2nd edition  Upper-Intermediate © Oxford University Press