Reported questions a) Read what a pollution protester told a journalist. “I belong to a group of people who protest against pollution. There are about twenty people in our group. We meet at a café in town. We organize protests because we want to improve the situation. We started our protests about two years ago. Yes, we’ll continue our protests next year.” b) Report the journalist’s questions. 1. The journalist asked how many people there were in the group _. _. 2. She asked _protests. 3. She wanted to know _、 _ 4. She asked protests _ 5. She asked the protester

This question tests the ability to transform direct speech into reported speech, focusing on question structures and tense changes. The key is to correctly adjust the verb tenses and question word order when reporting what was said.

The journalist's questions are reported using the correct reporting verbs and grammatical structures. The tense of the verbs shifts from present to past, and the word order of questions changes from direct to indirect.

Here are further explanations.

• 1: The original question was "How many people are there in the group?". In reported speech, this becomes "She asked how many people there were in the group." Note the change from "are" to "were".
• 2: The original question was likely "When did you start your protests?". The reported version is "She asked when they had started their protests." The tense shifts from past simple to past perfect.
• 3: The original question might have been "Where do you meet?". The reported version is "She wanted to know where they met." The tense changes from present simple to past simple. The second blank could be filled with "and when they met".
• 4: The original question was likely "Will you continue your protests next year?". The reported version is "She asked if they would continue their protests the following year." The tense shifts from future simple to conditional, and "next year" changes to "the following year".
• 5: The original question could be phrased in many ways, such as "Why do you organize protests?". The reported version could be "She asked why they organized the protests." The tense changes from present simple to past simple.