1. (a) back down – with draw one’s position in a fight (b) back up – help or support

Question

We use a variety of idioms in our daily life to describe various situations. Describethe narrator’s situation in your own words, making use of some of the new idiomsyou have just learnt.

1. (a) back down – with draw one’s position in a fight

(b) back up – help or support

(c) back off – retreat / withdraw

2. (a) Ask for – demand/request for something

(b) Ask after – enquire some one’s health

(c) Ask out – invite some one to begin a relationship

3. (a) Blow up – destroy something

(b) Blow out – extinguish

(c) Blow off – decide not do what is expected of someone

4. (a) break down – divide something in small units

(b) break into – to get into a building stealthily by force

(c) break off – suddenly stop speaking .

(d) break out – some unpleasant beginning

(e) break through – force one’s way through barriers

(f) break up – to get separated

5. (a) bring over – bring someone to a place

(b) bring up – raise some one.

(c) bring back – to return something

6. (a) burn down – destroy something with fire

(b) burn out – nothing left to bum

(c) burn up – destroy with fire .

7. (a) call in – request some one to help

(b) call off – cancel a planned programme

(c) call up – chosen to be a part of military service

8. (a) carry away – do something out of the ordinary due to strong feelings

(b) carry on – continue to do something

(c) carry out – do

9. (a) come about – when something occurs

(b) come across – meet

(c) come down – move from higher to lower position

(d) come down with – experience symptoms of illness

10. (a) cut back – spendless

(b) cut down – reduced expense

(c) cut off – completely remove

11. (a) drop in – visit

(b) drop off – decline

(c) dropout – quit school

12. (a) fall for – get attracted to

(b) fall behind – move slower

(c) face through – collapse of a plan

13. (a) Get over – move past an obstacle

(b) get behind – progress slowly

(c) get through – pass

14. (a) give away – distribute freely .

(b) give in – surrender

(c) give up – stop doing something

15. (a) go through – read

(b) go up – extend to a higher level

(c) go over – visit a place

Answer 1

1. (a) It’s too late to backed down now.

(b) You can back up the contacts stored on your device or SIM card.

(c) He refused to back off from his earlier statement.

2. (a) Oliver should ask for a hike in salary.

(b) Did she ask after me in her letter?

(c) I heard Murugesh ask out Sonia

3. (a) They used 10 tonnes of dynamite to blow up the rock.

(b) Blow out the candles before they bum out.

(c) Moorthy bunked the classes when the last exam was scheduled. He deliberately blew it off.

4. (a) It is easier to leam a big lesson if you break it down into many small segments. [OR] The car broke down on the way to Chennai.

(b) Generally, the burglars break into a bank and rob in the nights.

(c) Nayanthara, while sharing her grief over, the death of Sridevi, had to break off in the middle of her speech.

(d) The civil war broke out in China.

(e) The protesters will break through the barriers and storm into the office.

(f) Money problem often result in a marital break up

5. (a) I should bring over Mala for dinner.

(b) The aged couple will bring up the children with values.

(c) He asked Ramesh to bring back his pony.

6. (a) Hate not only bums down buildings but also the relationship between countries.

(b) As she did not get her promotion for long, she became a bum out.

(c) The lab burnt up and got reduced to ashes due to the negligence of the watchman.

7. (a) Dr. Amar was called in to revive the dying lady.

(b) The strike was called off as the boss agreed to most of their demands.

(c) Young ones waste away their adult life jobless as they are not called up in military.

8. (a) She was carried away by his flattery and regretted her decision to marry him.

(b) You must carry on your work

(c) The workers carried out their duties without grumbling.

9. (a) Ram was happy to see that things came about as expected.

(b) I came across a strange bird in the jungle.

(c) He came down because of his arrogance.

(d) Chitra came down with flu

10. (a) If young ones don’t learn to cutback their expenses now, they will regret later. 

(b) Mother cut down domestic expenses to support her child’s education.

(c) The village was cut off from electricity and water due to Tsunami 

11. (a) I dropped into Hari’s home last evening.

(b) The price of gold has dropped off a little

(c) She dropped out of school for her teacher was very rude.

12. (a) He fell for her beauty.

(b) Ram has fallen behind others in studies because he stayed away for a month.

(c) The project of converting sea water into drinking water fell through as the money got diverted to freebies. 

13. (a) You must learn to get over small problems to achieve great things in life.

(b) The minister’s car got behind due to a traffic jam.

(c) Priya will get through NEET because she is preparing smartly for it. 

14. (a) Give away your surplus wealth to poor relatives.

(b) The terrorists gavein when they could not fight Indian jawans any more. 

(c) Never give up hope. 

15. (a) I went through the book “Three cups of tea”.

(b) The price of rice, is going up everyday but the farmers are starving.

(c) I went over Agra last week with my school teacher.