A. Reported Speech follows exactly the same rules as the rest of the language. When we report what people say or think we use:
a. clauses with that (e.g. Everybody knew that it was Henry’s birthday tomorrow.) but we can leave out the word that. (e.g. Everybody knew it was Henry’s birthday tomorrow.)
b. ‘wh-‘ clauses and clauses with ‘if’ (e.g. He was asked what he had been doing the previous night.)
c. ‘to-infinitives’ (e.g. We all agreed to do as much as we could.)
A1. If you are talking about the past but you mention something that is still true you could use a present tense form to show you agree that it is true. (e.g. John said he had stayed at the Shangri-la because it is the most comfortable hotel in town.)
a. or a past tense form. (e.g. John said he had stayed at the Shangri-la because it was the most comfortable hotel in town.)
b. If we are talking about something that everybody knows is true we normally use a present tense. (e.g. Michael said he had always wanted to climb Everest because it is the highest mountain in the world.)
Idiom 365
X marks the spot: when someone finds something that is looking for obviously
Example: Could you please add some more water? OK, It will be X marks the spot.