Look up the following phrasal verbs in a dictionary and comment on their contextual meanings. Use the verbs to fill in the gaps in the sentences below
- to be laid up - to grow on smb
- to call upon smb (to do smth) - to hold out
- to carry smth out - to put oneself out
- to give in (to smb/ smth) - to throw up smth
- to go back on smth/ smb
1) The chairman spoke so forcefully that the rest of the committee ___ ___ his opinion.
2) Why did you ___ ___ such a good job, when they are so hard to get?
3) Religious people ___ ___ God to help them.
4) Only a coward ___ ___ his fate.
5) I’ve been ___ ___ since Christmas with a bad cough.
6) Don’t ___ ___ your education by leaving now.
7) The town was surrounded, but the citizens ___ ___ until help came.
8) The gunmen ___ ___ their threat and shot the man.
9) Mother was ___ ___ for a month – so ill she was after the operation.
10) Saving regularly soon ___ ___ you.
11) Say thank you to your aunt – she ___ herself ___ to take care of you when you were ill.
12) They ___ ___ their word and refused to lend us money.
13) His music is difficult to listen to, but after a while it starts ___ ___ you.
14) You should never ___ ___ your friends.
15) Do not give up. ___ ___ and fortify!
16) Ann is a very considerate girl, always willing to ___ herself ___ to help others.
Match the following idioms with their definitions and then use them in the sentences below.
Idiom | Definition | ||
At the bottom of one’s heart | A | to not make any effort to help someone | |
Be as good as his/ her word | B | not to take, touch, disturb etc smb | |
Be at death’s door | C | to do what you want, often despite the wishes or feelings of others | |
Be out of the question | D | to marry in a church, to wed | |
Distract one’s mind | E | to do what you have promised | |
Do smth behind smb’s back | F | to be so ill that you might die | |
Do one’s bit | G | to enjoy yourself; be very happy or excited | |
Follow smb to the grave | H | to be in a very dangerous or uncertain situation | |
Hang by a thread | I | what a person really/ secretly thinks/ feels | |
Have one’s own way | J | something will be impossible or not allowed | |
Have the time of one’s life | K | to do one’s duty, one’s share of responsibility | |
Lead smb to the altar | L | to die very soon after someone else | |
Leave smb/ smth alone | M | to do smth without smb’s knowing, especially because they would not like it | |
(not) lift/ raise/ stir a finger | N | (make smb) relax or stop thinking about important/ grave matters |
1) I feel guilty about complaining to the boss ________. I should have warned my colleagues before.
2) I was amazed to see how good he was at the job, chatting with the customers, obviously ________.
3) Hopkins had spent so much time ________ for the past years, that the final act of passing through it must have been for him pretty much of a routine affair.
4) For weeks after the accident, her life ________.
5) Patriotism united the British nation, regardless of class, age or political views, during the Great War when everyone _________ as a matter of course.
6) We moved furniture all day long, and Sara never ________ to help us.
7) You’ll find that she ________ – she always comes if she says she will.
8) Kitty kept saying that she would go, though ________ she knew that she couldn’t.
9) Once Stan threatened to make the letter public and he was ________.
10) A house was ________ then, as we lived in a rented flat.
11) Molly was so tired that she decided to make a break and go out somewhere to ________.
12) She outlived her husband by three months and soon ________.
13) Isabelle seemed to have got over Edward and a couple of months later Bateman, the devoted friend, ________.
14) You are bound to get into trouble, interfering in other people’s problems. Why can’t you ________?
6. Look up the following synonymous and semantically related words. Explain their difference and illustrate them by your own examples.
a) Delicate – gentle – tactful;
b) Delicate – frail – fragile – groggy – shaky – weak;
c) To adore – dote on – worship smb
Describe the characters of the story using the words and expressions below.
A) Louise
a (complete) humbug
frail, thin, delicate, with pale cheeks
leave smb with a weak heart
to take the greatest care of oneself
to be dismayed
to have a heart attack; her heart failed her
to be laid up
to hang by a thread
to have an unconquerable spirit
to be at death’s door
to fall down dead
to outlive/ survive smb;
to survive smth (a shock, a strain etc)
to save smb trouble
delicate/ precarious health
a wretched invalid
a submissive wife
to follow smb to the grave
(not) to give way to a private grief
uncomplaining
to carry out a stupendous bluff
to have the time of one’s life
to be prepared for the worst
on smb’s account
to be a burden to smb
to cultivate the society of painters and artists
to worship smb with an anxious adoration
B) Louise’s husbands: Tom Maitland and George Hobhouse
a big husky fellow
a fine athlete
to entrust smb to smb as a sacred charge
to excel in games
to undertake the charge
to dote upon smb
to catch one’s death of cold
to keep smb warm
to leave smb a comfortable fortune
to resign one’s commission
to have (no) stamina
to throw up one’s career
to grow on smb
to rejoin one’s regiment
not to let smb stir a finger
to redouble one’s attention towards smb
C) Iris, Louise’s daughter
to take care of smb
to live with an invalid
to sacrifice oneself for smb’s sake
to have a chance to lead a life of one’s own
to issue invitations
to postpone marriage indefinitely
to desert smb
to be hard on smb
to beg smb on one’s bended knees
to be radiant
to lead to the altar
D) the story-teller
to bother with smb
not to lose the opportunity of doing
to say smth (disagreeable) behind smb’s back
to make one’s meaning plain
coarse, brutal, vulgar
to be puzzled
to drop smb
to seek smb’s acquaintance
to gall/ cross smb
to look upon smb as smb (a comic figure)
to acknowledge oneself mistaken and defeated
to share a secret
to look at smb full and square
to have (no) compassion for smb