3. I've just read I am dead, Kipling said
Reading activity
Once again, Paco has taken out the guide book he got at the airport and is leafing through it. Suddenly, he finds out a page with a big ANECDOTES heading it and starts reading...
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A newspaper to which Kipling subscribed mistakenly published an announcement of his death. Kipling wrote at once to the editor and told him he had just read he was dead. He asked the editor not to forget to delete him from his list of subscribers.
For a brief period early in his career as a writer, Kipling worked as a reporter for an American daily newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, until he was fired. The editor who dismissed him told him that wasn't a kindergarten for amateur writers. He apologised to him and said he just didn't know how to use the English language.
E.M. (Edward Morgan) Forster
In June 1924, Forster published his masterpiece A Passage to India. As he feared, it proved to be his fifth and final novel, and he retired from fiction writing, announcing that he had nothing more to say.
Read the anecdotes very carefully and underline the sentences in the reported or indirect speech, that is, the sentences that tell what a person said in the past.
Important
Now we know that Reported Speech consists in reporting what you or another person has said. When we do that, we do not use the speaker's exact words (direct speech) but reported (indirect) speech. In Spanish it works exactly the same way!
Reflexión
Why do you think Rudyard Kipling and E.M. Forster appear in Paco's guide book about India?
Self-Assessment activityWhich of the following sentences would be the exact words said by Kipling, the San Francisco Examiner's editor, and Forster?
1. Kipling told the editor he had just read he was dead.
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a. "I am reading I am dead", Kipling said.
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b. "I've just read I'm dead", Kipling said.
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2. The editor who dismissed him told him that wasn't a kindergarten for amateur writers.
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a. "This isn't a kindergarten for amateur writers", the editor who dismissed Kipling said.
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b. "This wasn't a kindergarten for amateur writers", the editor who dismissed Kipling said.
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3. He said he just didn't know how to use the English language.
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a. "You haven't just known how to use the English language", he said.
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b. "You just don't know how to use the English language", he said.
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4. Forster announced that he had nothing more to say.
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a. "I have nothing more to say", Forster announced.
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b. "I have had nothing more to say", Forster announced.
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Further knowledge
By clicking here you will be able to complete a very interesting exercise strongly related to reported speech and the structure of the English sentence. Come on, do it! It's an easy and very useful exercise!
Listening activity
This is one of Kipling's best known poems, "If".
Enjoy it paying attention to pronunciation, intonation and rhythm.
Up to now, we have just had a quick look at reported statements, that is, to reported affirmative and negative sentences. But, what about reported commands and questions? Go to next section, these sentences are introduced in it!