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Unit 11: The diary of a double agent
Reported speech

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  1. 1 Pop-ups
  2. 2 Hidden talents
  3. 3 Can't buy me love
  4. 4 Travellers' tales
  5. 5 The colleague from hell
  6. 6 Jurassic mystery: unpacking the past
  7. 7 Career changes
  8. 8 Art
  9. 9 Project management
  10. 10 The dog ate my homework!
  11. 11 The diary of a double agent
  12. 12 Fashion forward
  13. 13 Flat pack skyscrapers
  14. 14 Extreme sports
  15. 15 Food fads
  16. 16 Me, my selfie and I
  17. 17 Endangered animals
  18. 18 A nip and a tuck: cosmetic surgery
  19. 19 I'm really sorry...
  20. 20 Telling stories
  21. 21 Fakes and phrasals
  22. 22 Looking to the future
  23. 23 Becoming familiar with things
  24. 24 From rags to riches
  25. 25 Against the odds
  26. 26 Our future on Mars?
  27. 27 Where is it illegal to get a fish drunk?
  28. 28 Dodgy dating
  29. 29 Annoying advice
  30. 30 I'll have been studying English for thirty weeks

Session 3

We meet Agent Rob and his colleagues as they make a plan to stop Dr XYZ from taking over the world. And we practise reported speech!

Sessions in this unit

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Session 3 score

0 / 6

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    Activity 1
  1. Activity 1

Activity 1

Agent Rob's secret report

How to stop Dr XYZ?

In this session we're going to do an activity to help you practise reported speech.

It's time to meet the daring Agent Rob. His mission is to stop the evil Dr XYZ from controlling the whole world. We join him as he meets colleagues Catherine and Finn to discuss how to stop Dr XYZ.

To do

First, listen to their conversation. What is Dr XYZ's secret plan?

Listen to the audio and complete the activity

Show transcript Hide transcript

Rob
Hi, Agent Rob here… they call me The Man with the Golden Grammar. My mission: to stop the evil Dr XYZ from taking over the world… My special agents Catherine and Agent Finn have been investigating.

Agent Catherine – where is he?

Catherine
We've found his secret headquarters. Dr XYZ lives on Zonk Island. It's 600 miles west of Chile, and it's on no maps. It's invisible to radar and satellite cameras.

Rob
Hmm. Agent Finn – what have you heard about his plan?

Finn
Yeah, Dr XYZ has developed software that will infect the whole internet and translate everything into his own language, Zonkian. Communication around the world will stop. Governments will fail. The world economy will be chaos.

Rob
Hmm. But why?

Finn
He plans to sell textbooks teaching Zonkian. Everyone in the world will need to learn his new language. He will sell millions of textbooks - and he'll become the richest man in the world.

Rob
Wow. What does it sound like, this Zonkian?

Finn
Uhh, I don't know.

Rob
What can we do?

Catherine
We need to stop him before it's too late.

Finn
I can go. I can go and find him and…

Catherine
No, no. We need to send you to Zonk Island, Agent Rob. You could learn Zonkian and understand his plans. You're… The Man with the Golden Grammar.

Rob
Well, thank you, I know I'm the best. Let me report this to our boss… And tomorrow, I'll save the world.

Listening question

Did you hear what the evil plan was? It was: to translate everything on the internet into a new language called Zonkian and force everyone buy his textbooks so they could understand it!

To do

Before he can save the world, Rob has to persuade his boss that he's the man for the job. Listen to their conversation again. After this, help Rob write a report to his boss based on what they said in the meeting, using reported speech.

Agent Rob's report

6 Questions

Agent Rob has written to his boss, using reported speech. Can you help correct his report before he sends it? In each question, you have to decide if what Rob wrote is OK or if it needs to be changed.

Congratulations you completed the Quiz
Excellent! Great job! Bad luck! You scored:
x / y

End of Session 3

That's it for this session. So, can Agent Rob save the world? If he can't, we will have to change this site to BBC Learning Zonkian! See you next time as we...

Session Grammar

  • Reported speech

    "I know you."
    She said she knew him.

    "I am having coffee"
    He said he was having coffee.

    "I have finished my homework"
    He said he had finished his homework.

    "I have been studying Chinese"
    She said she had been studying Chinese.

    "I am going to go home"
    She said she was going to go home.

    "I will go to the bank later"
    He said he would go to the bank later.

    "I can/can't speak Turkish"
    She said she could/couldn't speak Turkish.

    "I love you" = general truth
    She told me she loves me.

View full grammar reference

Session Vocabulary

  • daring
    brave and willing to take risks

    agent
    someone who works secretly for a government

    mission
    important task

    evil
    very bad

    taking over
    controlling

    headquarters
    main offices of an organisation or company

    invisible
    cannot be seen

    radar
    a system that uses radio waves to see objects

    infect
    (here) pass harmful computer programme from one machine to another

    chaos
    state of complete confusion

View full vocabulary reference

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