Beyond Tomorrow, Episode 3

In soap operas[1], problems often arise because the characters gossip[2], or spread rumors. Of course, this often happens in everyday life, and some sure we’ve all been guilty of doing this at some point or other. And if you’re going to gossip in English, you’d better do it right! An essential tool is reported speech! We use reported speech to tell somebody what someone else said.   

We can enrich our gossip with a variety of speech verbs: 
affirm, announce, answer, assert, beg, comment, declare, express, invite, observe, question, refuse, remark, remind, reply, request, state, suggest, think, threaten, warn, wonder

Report what the people below said using one of the alternative speech verbs above appropriately. And then check to see if you were correct by listening to the audio further below. The answers are written in the comments.

Beyond Tomorrow: Episode 3 

Billy: What went wrong between us, Alicia? 
Alicia: I’m afraid that the romance is gone, Billy. 
Daniel: Please Carol, give me another chance to make things right! 
Carol: I’m tired of excuses! 
Fred: Eleanor, I won’t ever fool around[3] on you again! 
Eleanor: I don’t want to see you ever again, Fred! 
Gina: Fred, you can have me whenever you want! 
Harry: You’d better stay away [4] or I’ll kill you! 

If you had trouble with this exercise, check out the reported commands entry.


What do you think will happen in the next episode of Beyond Tomorrow! 


[1] culebrones, [2] cotillear, [3] poner cuernos, [4] alejarse