II. Phrasal Verbs
A phrasal verb is a verb followed by a preposition or an adverb. Its meaning is often different from the meanings of its parts. Compare the meanings of the verbs get on and run away in (a) and (b) below. You can easily guess their meanings in (a) but in (b) they have special meanings.
(a) • She got on at Agra when the bus stopped for breakfast.
• Dev Anand ran away from home when he was a teenager.
(b) • She’s eager to get on in life. (succeed)
• The visitors ran away with the match. (won easily)
Some phrasal verbs have three parts: a verb followed by an adverb and a preposition.
(c) Our car ran out of petrol just outside the city limits.
(d) The government wants to reach out to the people with this new campaign.
2. Now find the sentences in the lesson that have the phrasal verbs given below. Match them with their meanings. (You have already found out the meanings of some of them.) Are their meanings the same as that of their parts? (Note that two parts of a phrasal verb may occur separated in the text.)
(i) plunge in – speak or write without focus
(ii) kept back – stay indoors
(iii) move up – make (them) remain quiet
(iv) ramble on – have a good relationship with
(v) get along with – give an assignment (homework) to a person in authority (the teacher)
(vi) calm down – compensate
(vii) stay in – go straight to the topic
(viii) make up for – go to the next grade
(ix) hand in – not promoted
Since no one would understand a word of my stories to Kitty if I were to plunge right in, I’d better provide a brief sketch of my life, much as I dislike doing so.
(ii) kept back − not promoted
The reason, of course, is the forthcoming meeting in which the teachers decide who’ll move up to the next form and who’ll be kept back.
(iii) move up − go to the next grade
The reason, of course, is the forthcoming meeting in which the teachers decide who’ll move up to the next form and who’ll be kept back.
(iv) ramble on − speak or write without focus
Anyone could ramble on and leave big spaces between the words, but the trick was to come up with convincing arguments to prove the necessity of talking.
(v) get along with − have a good relationship with
I get along pretty well with all my teachers.
(vi) calm down − make (them) remain quite
Even G.’s pleading advances and my angry outbursts can’t calm them down.
(vii) stay in − stay indoors
I thought of this saying on one of those days when I was feeling a little depressed and was sitting at home with my chin in my hands, bored and listless, wondering whether to stay in or go out.
(viii) make up for − compensate
This birthday celebration in 1942 was intended to make up for the other.
(ix) hand in − give an assignment (homework) to a person in authority (the teacher)
I handed it in, and Mr Keesing had nothing to complain about for two whole lessons.
