Hi teachers,
The context:
[color=blue]They don’t want people in this country to know the name. And so they were angry with me in prison, because they think that I know the murderer’s name.’
Olivia’s face was afraid. ‘Do … Do you know?’ she whispered.
‘Yes.’ Alex looked at his wife’s white, unhappy face. ‘But I’m not going to tell you,’ he said quietly. ‘It’s a very … dangerous name.’
Could you correct my question?
Did Alex tell Olivia the murderer’s name? Explain your answer using reported speech.
No he didn’t. He said (that) he was not going to tell her.
Thanks in advance.
In my opinion:
It’s unclear if he told her the name or not, the fact that he wasn’t going to tell her does not necessarily mean that she didn’t persuade him to tell her the name later. Maybe she continued pressing the issue and he relented.
So logically speaking, your answer is incorrect.
But I believe that, grammatically speaking, your answer is correct.
Hi OTS,
Thanks for your reply.
According to the story, he never told her the name. Olivia is his wife.
RtL
AS OTS said, from the context you’ve supplied it’s not possible to say whether Alex told Olivia the murderer’s name. If the students are expecting to find their answer in that excerpt, it is inconclusive.
If you expect them to recall the fact from the whole story, assuming they have read it all at that point, then they could answer.
Hi Beeesneees,
Thanks for your reply. The fact is that the student’s haven’t read the whole story yet. Only until the given paragraph. And in fact, they haven’t even read it yet. This question and a few others are just to be listened. Only when they have answered and discussed in class the 8-10 questions that I give them per page is when they get that written part of the story.
RtL
In that case, I*'d scrap that question unless I were prepared to accept the answer ‘It is not clear’ or ‘It does not say for certain’, etc.
Hi Beeesneees,
Point taken!
RtL