Select the correct indirect form of the given sentence.

The chemist said to me, "I cannot take these medicines back as they are special medicines."

The chemist told me that he could not take those medicines back as they were special medicines.

The correct indirect form of the sentence is: OPTION 2

The chemist told me that he could not take those medicines back as they were special medicines.

Here's why:

• Reporting verb: "told" (past tense)
• Direct speech tense: "cannot take" (present tense)
• Shifting tense: Since the reporting verb is in the past tense, we need to shift the tense of the verb in the reported speech to past tense as well. Therefore, "cannot take" becomes "could not take."
• Pronoun changes: "I" (speaker) becomes "he" (subject of the reporting verb) and "these" (referring to the context of the conversation) becomes "those" (clarifying the specific medicines).

The other options are incorrect because:

• Option 1 uses "cannot take" instead of "could not take," which is incorrect for past tense reporting.
• Option 3 changes "he" to "I," which makes the statement inaccurate as the chemist, not the speaker, makes the claim.
• Option 4 uses "these" instead of "those," which might create confusion regarding which medicines are being referred to.