1. Janice said I was a cheapskate, but she later admitted that it wasn't true. What did Janice do?
2. A number of situations and events helped to cause the Civil War. What did those situations an events do?
3. You've rewritten this story four times, and you're still not happy with it. What have you done to the story four times?
4. When I opened the box of cereal, it was full of bugs, so I returned it to the store. What did I do to the box of cereal?
5. Bill has a system for picking good stocks, and he always uses it. What does Bill do with his system?
6. Mr. Tucker's fifteen-year-old daughter wants to get a tattoo, but he absolutely will not allow it. What won't Mr. Tucker do?
7. Visiting his old high school brought back a lot of memories. What did visiting his old high school do to him? 262
8. Carlos came to my house and stayed for a while. What did Carlos do after he came to my house?
9. People in my office have been reading the latest issue of Time magazine and then giving it to someone else. What has the magazine been doing?
10. She asked me what "Ph.D." represents. What did she ask me?
11,1 felt ridiculous dressing as a pink dinosaur for my nephew's birthday party, but my brother persuaded me to do it. What did my brother do?
EXERCISE 34d, Review — Complete the sentences with these phrasal verbs from previous sections. Be sure the phrasal verbs are in the correct tense. To check their meanings, review the section number given after each one.
| bite off, 27 | fall behind, 33 | plan ahead, 25 | shake up, 24 |
| catch on, 33 | get together, 26 | print out, 24 | stay out, 23 |
| come about, 33 | goof around, 33 | pull off, 33 | stop over, 24 |
| come out, 32 | let in on, 26 | put together, 26 | wear off, 27 |
1.1 asked Sam how his job interview _______ _______, and he said it went great.
2.1 asked my history teacher what led up to the American Revolution, and he said the war _______ ________ as a result of several factors.
3. After the tranquilizer ________ ________, the elephant will wake up.
4. The new owners of the company said they planned to ______ things _______.
5. When you're an adult, you can't just think about today; you have to _____ ______.
6. Tonight I'm going to _______ _______ with some friends and watch the game.
7. Mark has a rich father, so Mark doesn't work; he just ______ ______ most of time.
8. The finance minister ______ ______ a plan to revive the nation's economy.
9. That's a pretty big project. Are you sure you haven't ________ ________ more than you can chew?
10. The new system at the warehouse was a disaster, and we ________ ________ in filling orders.
11. I didn't sleep at all last night — I ________ ________ dancing until dawn, and I'm really beat.
12. People have been talking about picture phones for years, but they've never ________ ________.
13. The boss ________ me ________ ________ the new strategy.
14. If you're not busy, would you like to ________ ________ for a while? We could watch TV or play cards.
15. The crooks tried to steal a 747 by pretending to be pilots, but they couldn't ________ it ________.
16. I finished my letter, but I can't ________ it ________ because I'm out of toner.
35. FOCUS ON: gerund phrasal verbs
In Section 10 we looked at gerunds as the objects of phrasal verbs. Now we will look at phrasal verbs as gerunds themselves. Like ordinary verbs, gerund phrasal verbs can be the subject of a sentence:
Narrowing down the list will be difficult.
subject
the object of a sentence:
We discussed narrowing down the list.
object
or the object of a preposition:
We talked about narrowing down the list.
object of preposition
How and when phrasal verbs can be separated is unaffected by their use as gerunds:
Narrowing it down will be difficult.
We discussed narrowing it down.
We talked about narrowing it down.
| Infinitive | ||||
| present tense | -ing form | past tense | past participle | |
| fool around | ||||
| fool around & fools around | fooling around | fooled around | fooled around |
1. fool around p.v. When you waste time playing or doing silly or unimportant things, you fool around. Goof around is the same as fool around.
My son is lazy. He spends his time fooling around instead of looking for a job. My boss said, "I'm not paying you to fool around — get to work!"
1. fool around (with) p.v. When you fool around with something, you do something that may be dangerous or foolish.
Fooling around with drugs is pretty stupid.
You shouldn't fool around with the insides of your computer unless you know what you're doing.
3. foot around (with) p.v. [informal] When two people fool around or fool around with each other, they have sexual relations, even though one or both of them may be married to someone else or even though their families or society may not approve.
Sally's father caught her and Jim fooling around in the basement.
Her husband's been fooling around with his secretary, and everyone in town knows it.
Go by
go by & goes by going by went by gone by
1. go by p.v. When people go by a place or thing, they pass near that place or thing. When a thing goes by or goes by you, it passes near you.
We watched the parade go by.
I went by Jim's house to see if his car was in the driveway.
2. go by p.v. When you go by a place, you go there so that you can do something or get something.
Let's go by Paul's house to get his tools before we work on your car.
You can forget about going by the dry cleaner to pick up your stuff— it's closed.
3. go by p.v. When a period of time goes by, it passes.
/ can't believe that thirty years have gone by since I got out of high school.
As time went by, Betty moved up in the company until she was the head of the finance department.
4. go by p.v. When you go by a policy or standard, you use it as a reference or a guide in making decisions and determining your behavior. When you go by the book, you follow rules, policies, or laws exactly.
Going by the book has always been my policy.
Jim told me to do one thing, and Tom told me to do another, but since Tom is the boss, I'm going to go by what he says.
5. go by p.v. When you go by a clock, you use it to tell the time.
Don't go by the clock on the wall; it's fast. Go by the clock on the desk.
No wonder I'm always late for work — the clock I've been going by is ten minutes slow.
| Infinitive | |||
| present tense | -ing form | past tense | past participle |
| hold against | |||
| hold against & holds against | holding against | held against | held against |
1. hold...against p.v. When you hold things against people, you continue to blame them for something and continue to be upset about it.
Ten years ago I got a promotion that Ned thought he deserved, and he's held it against me ever since.
Jane tost her job because of a mistake Bob made, but she doesn't hold it against him.
