Select the option that expresses the given sentence in direct voice.
The captain explained that the ship had been sailing for three weeks and they had faced a severe storm the previous night.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
faced a severe storm last night."
The original sentence is in indirect speech and uses the past perfect tense ("had been sailing") and the simple past tense ("had faced"). When converting to direct speech, the tenses within the inverted comma must reflect the original words spoken by the captain, which refers to a period extending up to that point in the past. Therefore, the past perfect "had been sailing" remains the same to show action completed before a past time, and the simple past "had faced" becomes "faced" to represent the simple past in direct speech. Additionally, "the previous night" changes to "last night".