Nov 23rd

A. ENGLISH PHRASAL VERBS

With more details coming out and the story showing no signs of dying down, Tim Bowen looks at phrasal verbs in the news – in particular, the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

In recent weeks, one story has dominated the British media – the newspaper phone-hacking story.

Read the story below and identify the phrasal verbs used by the author of this article and ascertain their corresponding meaning.  Not an easy task but I am sure you can do it!

Allegedly, private investigators, paid for their services by journalists at a leading Sunday newspaper, hacked into the mobile phones of politicians, celebrities and victims of crime. Having gained access to the voicemail of their victims, the hackers spied on them by listening in their private conversations.

As more and more details leaked out, some journalists have complained that they were constantly leaned on by editors to come up with exclusive stories for the paper and this, in turn, forced them to resort to illegal methods to come by such stories.

As the scandal grew, the debate about the freedom of the press and personal privacy started to hot up. It soon became clear that the newspaper in question had also attempted to cover up certain evidence of wrongdoing. In order to fend off further criticism, the management of the newspaper decided to close it down and lay off its 200 employees.

The furor over the behaviour of certain individuals shows no sign of dying down and, as ever more lurid details come out on an almost daily basis, no-one can say with any certainty what the investigation into the affair is going to turn up next.

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Choose a phrasal verb to replace the explanation in brackets.

1.    When Caroline goes to work, the babysitter  (takes care of) _________ ____  the children.                         a) looks at     b) looks up     c) looks for     d) looks after

2.    The babysitter (has a good relationship)   _________  ____  well with the children.                         a) gets out     b) gets on     c) gets up     d) gets in

3.    Peter promises he will ( stop)  _________ ____  smoking soon.                          a) give in      b) give over     c) give up     d) give out

4.    They (continue) _________ ____  talking when the teacher arrives.                          a) carry on     b) get on     c) break out      d) remain on

5.    The fire fighters came and  (extinguish)  _________ ____  the fire.                          a)  put off      b) let away     c) put out     d) let out

6.    I'll call the shop to  (discover) _________ ____  the price.                          a) find out     b) bring out     c) turn up     d) call up

7.    You never forget the place where  you  (spend childhood)  _________ ____ .                          a) bring up     b) raise up     c) grow up     d)  rise up

8.     If your car (ceases to function) _________ ____  , you should call a garage.                          a) stops off     b) breaks down     c) turns off     d) breaks out

9.     It's difficult for a plane to (leave the ground) _________ ____  when there is snow on the ground.                          a) take off     b) start up      c) lift off     d) rise up

10.     You must  (return) _________ ____   the books that I lend you.                           a) hand in     b) take back     c) give back     d) pay for

Read the following story and identify the phrasal verbs used by the author.  There are 26 uses of phrasal verbs in this text.  Can you find them?

Adventures Growing Up

I was brought up in a small town in the countryside. Growing up in the countryside offered lots of advantages for young people. The only problem was that we often got into trouble as we made up stories that we acted out around town. I can remember one adventure in particular: One day as we were coming back from school, we came up with the brilliant idea to make out that we were pirates looking for treasure. My best friend Tom said that he made out an enemy ship in the distance. We all ran for cover and picked up a number of rocks to use for ammunition against the ship as we got ready to put together our plan of action. We were ready to set off on our attack, we slowly went along the path until we were face to face with our enemy - the postman's truck! The postman was dropping off a package at Mrs. Brown's house, so we got into his truck. At that point, we really didn't have any idea about what we were going to do next. The radio was playing so we turned down the volume to discuss what we would do next. Jack was all for switching on the motor and getting away with the stolen mail! Of course, we were just children, but the idea of actually making off with a truck was too much for us to believe. We all broke out in nervous laughter at the thought of us driving down the road in this stolen Postal Truck. Luckily for us, the postman came running towards us shouting, "What are you kids up to?!". Of course, we all got out of that truck as quickly as we could and took off down the road.

Phrasal Verbs Matching  

Match the phrasal verbs in the first column to the best available answer in the second column. 

   

_____  blow up                                              1) choose 

  

_____  throw away                                        2) omit 

  

_____  look like                                            3) resemble 

  

_____  leave out                                         4) postpone 

  

_____  pass away                                       5) recollect 

  

_____  pick out                                           6) cancel 

  

_____  work out                                         7) recover 

  

_____  make up                                        8) die 

  

_____  pick on                                          9) find 

  

_____  get over                                      10) create 

  

_____  put off                                        11) explode 

  

_____  call off                                       12) continue 

  

_____  hold on                                     13) happen 

  

_____  come across                            14) wait 

  

_____  look back on                            15) discard 

  

_____  carry on                                  16) admire 

  

_____  take place                              17) exercise 

  

_____  look up to                              18) bully

B. ENGLISH IDIOMATIC EXPRESSIONS

Here is a list of the 25 most common idiomatic expressions used today.  Can you guess their meanings?

1. Piece of cake

2. Hit the nail on the head
3. Bend over backwards

4. Let the cat out of the bag

5. Raining cats and dogs

6. Break a leg
7. A penny for your thoughts
8. Add insult to injury

9. A hot potato

10. Once in a blue moon
11. See eye to eye

12. Hear it on the grapevine
13. Miss the boat

14. Kill two birds with one stone

15. On the ball
16. Cut corners
17. To hear something straight from the horse's mouth
18. Costs an arm and a leg
19. The last straw
20. Take what someone says with a pinch of salt

21. Sit on the fence

22. The best of both worlds
23. Put wool over other people's eyes

24. Feeling a bit under the weather

25. The ball is in your court

C. Reading: How to deal with Boring meetings?

Read the following article (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-06-22/m-and-ms-and-dirty-doodles-how-to-survive-a-boring-meeting#r=lr-fst) about BORING business meetings and how to deal with them.  Write a couple of paragraphs summarizing your thoughts about this topic after reading this article.  Agree, disagree, good idea, bad idea, does it happen to you often, all the times, you know someone who does this, etc, etc, etc.  There is a lot of interesting vocabulary in this article that you should note and bring up in class if you didn't understand the meaning.

D. Homonyms Exercises

Choose the right answer.

1. She wants an apple, not a      .

 pear pair

2. The bus       is one dollar.

 fare fair

3.       house is near the lake.

 There Their

4. No eating or drinking       on the sports ground!

 aloud allowed

5. The book teaches how to spell      .

 write right

6. We took a       from work and went for a walk.

 break brake

7. We must consider this situation as a      .

 hole whole

8. It's time to       the seeds.

 sew sow

9. Mix some       with milk, eggs, and sugar and make cookies for the children.

 flower flour

10. It was more than I could      .

 bare bear

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E. Tongue Twisters to improve your pronunciation

1. Biscuit mixer: I bought a bit of baking powder and baked a batch of biscuits. I brought a big basket of biscuits back to the bakery and baked a basket of big biscuits. Then I took the big basket of biscuits and the basket of big biscuits and mixed the big biscuits with the basket of biscuits that was next to the big basket and put a bunch of biscuits from the basket into a biscuit mixer and brought the basket of biscuits and the box of mixed biscuits and the biscuit mixer to the bakery and opened a tin of sardines. 
2. Doctor doctoring: When a doctor doctors a doctor, does the doctor doing the doctoring doctor as the doctor being doctored wants to be doctored or does the doctor doing the doctoring doctor as he wants to doctor?
3. Mary Mac: Mary Mac's mother's making Mary Mac marry me. My mother's making me marry Mary Mac. Will I always be so Merry when Mary's taking care of me? Will I always be so merry when I marry Mary Mac? 
4. Nature watcher: Out in the pasture the nature watcher watches the catcher. While the catcher watches the pitcher who pitches the balls. Whether the temperature's up or whether the temperature's down, the nature watcher, the catcher and the pitcher are always around. The pitcher pitches, the catcher catches and the watcher watches. So whether the temperature's rises or whether the temperature falls the nature watcher just watches the catcher who's watching the pitcher who's watching the balls. 
5. Wish to wish: I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won't wish the wish you wish to wish.