(Mackenzie - 2005)
The New York Times
Schools Relax Cellphone Bans, Nodding to Trend
By MATT RICHTEL

Lunch time means cellphone time for Gray Taylor, 15, and fellow students at Eastern High in Lansing, Mich. Carol T. Powers, NYT
LANSING, Mich. – Sitting in his second-period computer class at Eastern High School, Gray Taylor, 15, felt his cellphone vibrate. To avoid being caught by the teacher, he answered quietly – and discovered an unexpected caller.
“Why are you answering the phone in class?”
Gray’s mother asked. He whispered back, “You’re the one who called me.” His mother said she had intended to leave a question on Gray’s voice mail.
Such scenes are playing out across the country, as hundreds of high schools have reluctantly agreed to relax their rules about cellphones in schools. Rather than banning the phones outright, as many once did, they are capitulating to parent demands and market realities, and allowing students to carry phones in school – though not to use them in class.
The reversal is a significant change from policies of the 1990’s, when school administrators around the country viewed cellphones as the tools of drug dealers. In Florida, carrying a cellphone in school could be punishable by a 10-day suspension. In Louisiana, it was deemed a crime, with a potential penalty of 30 days in jail.
But now the phones have become tools used by parents to keep in touch with, and keep track of, their children. And schools are facing a more basic reality: it is no longer possible to enforce such bans.
Thanks to the falling prices of mobile phones, and the aggressive efforts by carriers to market “family plans” to parents and teenagers, the phones have become so commonplace that trying to keep them out of schools would be like trying to enforce a ban on lip gloss or combs.
Adapted from The New York Times, September 2004, www.nytimes.com
The question "Why are you answering the phone in class?" in the reported speech will be:
Gray's mother asked him why is he answering the phone in class?
Gray's mother wanted to know the reason why was he answering the phone in class.
Gray's mother wondered why he was answering the phone in class.
Gray's mother inquired him about the reason that he has been answering the phone in class.
Gray's mother doubted why he was answering the phone in class.
Gabarito:
Gray's mother wondered why he was answering the phone in class.
A questão pede a transição da sentença da melhor maneira para o reported speech.
Why are you answering the phone in class? (Frase para ser transcrita)
A - Gray's mother asked him why is he answering the phone in class? (O erro aqui está no "is" ele deveria estar no passado).
B -Gray's mother wanted to know the reason why was he answering the phone in class. (Aqui o Was está na ordem errada, para perguntas indiretas ele permanecerá, neste caso depois do he)
C - Gray's mother wondered why he was answering the phone in class. (Está perfeitamente correta esta questão, pois corresponde a todas as regras do reported speech)
D - Gray's mother inquired him about the reason that he has been answering the phone in class. (Além da frase está organizada de maneira que fere a progressão textual, dá a ideia de que a ação começa no passado e se arrasta até o presente devido o uso do present perfect (have+ verbo no partícipio).
E - Gray's mother doubted why he was answering the phone in class. (O erro aqui está no uso do verbo doubted, pois a tradução é "duvidou", ela não dúvida sobre a questão do celular)