Concept:When converting indirect speech to direct speech, change the tense of the verb to the present tense if the reporting verb is in the past tense and the statement is still true. Also place the speech in quotation marks and add proper punctuation.
Explanation:The indirect sentence is: "The professor remarked that students needed to submit their papers before Friday."
The reporting verb "remarked" stays in the past tense but is placed outside the quotation.
The verb "needed" in the indirect speech must be changed to "need" in direct speech because the requirement is still valid.
The direct speech should begin with a capital letter and end with a period inside the quotation marks.
Thus the correct direct form is: “Students need to submit their papers before Friday,” the professor remarked.
Option 2 keeps "needed" in past tense, which is wrong.
Option 3 changes the tone to an instruction, not a remark.
Option 4 uses incorrect tense "were to submit", altering meaning.
Only option A matches all rules.
Answer:Option A: “Students need to submit their papers before Friday,” the professor remarked.