Tonight we leave the Library. In fact, we leave the Earth.
Learn from Songs · Unit 11: Reported speech · B1–B2
Space Oddity
An astronaut, a countdown and a voice from Earth: reported orders and requests (told him to…, asked him not to…), reported questions (asked if he could hear them, asked where he was) and reporting verbs (warn, remind, reply, wonder), with Philo, Sophia, Marcos and Demetria.
SOPHIA
MARCOS
Finally! Where are we going?
SOPHIA
Into space, with an astronaut called Major Tom. The whole song is a radio conversation between Tom and the people on the ground.
DEMETRIA
Like the signals between the lighthouse and the ships!
Before you listen: the song
London, 1969
In 1968, the young David Bowie went to see Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey, several times. The title of his song is a play on the film’s title: an oddity is something strange.
The song came out on 11 July 1969, just days before Apollo 11 took the first men to the Moon. It was Bowie’s first big hit, reaching number 5 in Britain, and when it was re-released in 1975 it went to number 1. In 2013, the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield sang it on the International Space Station: the first music video ever filmed in space.
In the song, Ground Control gives Major Tom his last instructions, and the countdown begins. Up in space, Tom looks down at the blue Earth and feels calm and very small. Then something goes wrong with the radio. Ground Control keeps calling, asking if he can hear them. We never find out what happens to him.
What is a human being, looking down at the whole Earth?
Listen: Ground Control and Major Tom
PHILO
Listen once. What does Ground Control tell Tom to do? What does Tom see? What goes wrong?
SOPHIA
Then answer Section A. Listen for the instructions at the start and the questions at the end.
🚀 Listen to the song: “Space Oddity” (David Bowie, 1969), sung by David Bowie.Listen to the official recording →
📜 Read the words while you listen: “Space Oddity”, David Bowie.Read the lyrics →
Reported orders and requests
MARCOS
“Put your helmet on!” → They told him to put his helmet on.
SOPHIA
Orders and requests: tell / ask / order / remind + person + to + verb. Negative: not to. “Don’t look down!” → They told him not to look down. No tense change here: just to + verb.
Reported yes/no questions
DEMETRIA
“Can you hear me?” → They asked if he could hear them.
SOPHIA
Yes/no questions: ask + if / whether, then normal statement word order. Tenses move back. No question mark, and no do / did: “Do you feel well?” → They asked if he felt well.
Wh- questions and reporting verbs
PHILO
“Where are you?” → They asked where he was. Not “where was he”!
SOPHIA
Wh- questions: ask + wh- word + subject + verb. Other useful reporting verbs: warn someone (not) to, remind someone to, wonder if / where, reply that, announce that.
Sophia’s comparison: Phaethon
SOPHIA
Phaethon begged his father Helios to let him drive the chariot of the Sun. Helios warned him not to fly too high or too low, and told him to keep to the middle of the sky. But Phaethon lost control, and fell.
PHILO
And the psalmist looked up at the night sky and asked what a human being is, that God remembers him.
DEMETRIA
And Major Tom looks down at the Earth and asks the same question from the other side.
Sophia’s summary
| Words and forms | Use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| tell / ask / order + person + to | reporting orders and requests | They told him to put his helmet on. |
| tell + person + not to | reporting negative orders | They told him not to look down. |
| ask if / whether | reporting yes/no questions | They asked if he could hear them. |
| ask + wh- word + subject + verb | reporting wh- questions | They asked where he was. |
| warn, remind, wonder, reply, announce | more exact reporting verbs | They reminded him to check the engines. |
Practice
Listen to the song for Section A, then do the rest. Press “Check my answers” at the end. You can try again as many times as you like.
A · Listen: the song
Listen to the song and choose the best answer.
1. Who is talking to Major Tom?
2. What is happening at the start of the song?
3. How does Tom feel up in space?
4. What colour is the Earth in the song?
5. What goes wrong?
6. Which film inspired the song?
B · Grammar and vocabulary
Write the missing word or words.
7. “Put your helmet on.” → They told him put his helmet on.
8. “Don’t open the door.” → They told him to open the door.
9. “Can you hear me?” → They asked he could hear them.
10. “Where are you?” → They asked where he .
11. “Do you feel well?” → They asked if he well.
12. “Remember to check the engines.” → They him to check the engines.
C · Right or wrong?
Is the sentence correct English?
13. “They asked him where was he.”
14. “They told him not to worry.”
15. “She asked me if did I like the song.”
16. “He said me to wait.”
Talk and write
Discussion and writing
Mission control. In pairs, one student is Ground Control and gives an astronaut five instructions and three questions. Then report them to the class: She told him to… She asked him if… He wanted to know where…
Discuss. 1. What do you think happened to Major Tom? 2. Why did the song come out just before the Moon landing? 3. Would you like to go into space? What would you most want to see?
Write (120–150 words). The last message. Write Ground Control’s report of the mission: what they told Tom to do, what they asked him, what he replied, and when they lost contact.
Now play the gamebook: messages from the lighthouse, and a ship lost in the night.Play the gamebook →