Q1. [1]
Report the dialogue between a vendor and his customer, by completing the sentence:
Vendor : We missed your usual visits, sir.
Customer : I know, I had to travel for work.
The vendor expressed that the customer's regular visits were missed, reaching out to the customer. The customer acknowledged this and clarified that ______.
Previously asked in CBSE board exam
2024 2/3/1 Q3 (ix)
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · 2026-06-15 07:17 · grounding rag
Model Answer
The customer acknowledged this and clarified that he had had to travel for work.
Explanation
The customer's direct speech "I had to travel for work" must be reported with a backshift in tense: had to becomes had had to. The pronoun "I" changes to "he" to match the third person. No change in adverb is needed here. Examiners award the mark for correct tense backshift and pronoun change.
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