Choose the correct indirect narration of the following statement from the given alternatives:
The judge said to the prisoner, 'What were you doing in the garage at 10:30 pm on Monday when the incident took place?'
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The original statement is a direct question in the past continuous tense ('What were you doing?') and the simple past tense ('when the incident took place?'). When converting direct speech into indirect (reported) speech, the tense generally shifts backward in time.
The past continuous tense ('were you doing') changes to the past perfect continuous tense ('he had been doing').
The simple past tense ('took place') changes to the past perfect tense ('had taken place').
Option C correctly applies both of these tense changes.