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TitleTHE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS : The
Comprehension Process of Phrasal Verbs
Author(s) Suzuki, Hiroko
Citation 神奈川大学言語研究, 12: 1-22
Date 1990-03-01
Type Departmental Bulletin Paper
Rights publisher
THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC The Comprehension Process of Phrasal Verbs
VERBS
Hiroko Suzuki
INTORDUCTION
The children learn an average of 3, 000 new words every year. In
the first grade, 7 year-old children know 7, 000 words and they usually
learn 14, 000 words at the age of 14 (Richards, 1976). How can they
learn so many words ? They must be acquiring the words apart from
instruction specifically devoted to vocabulary learning (Nagy, 1987).
The developmental stages of vocabulary acquisition of young children
demonstrated a two-step learning process. In the first step, they assign
a new word to a semantic category. Then, they discover the disting-
uising particulars of the new word from the other words belonging to
the same category. That is, they assimilate the incoming word to and distinguish it from the other words in the related category which they
have constructed. They form conceptually related patterns and build
up their vocabulary as a coherent integrated system of concepts. This
process enables them to learn the words so rapidly (Miller, 1986). Miller (1986) introduced "semantic field" as an important concept
to explain the process of vocabulary acquisition. A semantic field is a
set of words whose semantic decompositions all share at least one
nuclear concept. The dictionary in your head (the knowledge of your
vocabulary) is organized into many sub-dictionaries for different se-
mantic fields, where any single semantic field has minimal polysymy.
On the other hand, the semantic unit is the organization of words'
meanings which the learner has learned in the past. This organization
unites what he/she knows about the different aspects of meaning
2
conveyed by the word in different contexts. Thus, understanding a
word in a particular context is sustained by the unit. The unit is
strenthened by processing the word's meaning in a new context and
adding new information to it (Elshout-Mohr, 1987). The more stren-
thened the unit, the more abstractly the learner grasp the word' s
meaning, the more efficiently the learner can automate the process
and the more flexibly he/she can use the word in various contexts.
Therefore, we have the organizations united the information both of
a single word's meanings and of the relationships among the words
in our vocabulary.
Some emprical studies have demonstrated that younger children
perceive words as `concrete' ideas, which emphasizes their isolated or particular aspects, whereas older children stress the abstract of `class' features of the word meanings
, both in a recall-type test, as
productive knowledge (Feifel and Lorge, 1950, Russell, 1962) and in a multiple-choice, recognition type test, as receptive knowledge
(Kruglore, 1953).
As well as the complexity of comprehension processes of learners,
we have to consider the diversity of the word's meaning when we
discuss the process of acquiring words. Carter (1987) tried to clarify
the definition of core vocabulary. The first characteristics is that
phrases of core words with adverbs or adjectives can be substituted. For instance, "laugh in a loud and rude manner" can substitute for 'guffaw'. The second characteristic of core vocabulary is collocability.
That is, `bright' can collocate with either `sun', `light,' `idea' or 'green
,' while `radiant' can with `light' but not with 'green'. The
collocability of `bright' is higher than 'radiant'. The core words also
extend their meanings to such forms as compounds, idioms and phrasal
verbs. Thus, the core words produce more meanings by forming
pharses. Lado (1964), on the other hand, pointed out the complexity of understanding the basic words due to the fact that they are used
in various contexts, so that they are sometimes used as particular
THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS 3
meanings we are extremely unfamiliar with. The basic words, in a sense, don't necessarily have a single basic concept, but, rather, they
are quite flexible to express various meanings either independently or
followed by adverbs or prepositions in different contexts. Therefore
it must be difficult for the learners to grasp the entire meaning of
the basic words.
The frequency list of the words in the textbooks displayed that the
video-aided textbooks (spoken English) tend to use basic words more
frequently than the highschool textbooks for reading (written English)
(Kotani and Suzuki, 1988). That is, the vocabulary size of the spoken English material is smaller than the one of the written English
materials. Holliday (1988) explained that the spoken English is lexically
sparse but grammatically intricate compared with the written English.
The analysis of the target "basic verbs" tells that in the spoken
English textbooks the basic verbs used in different contexts had various
meanings, especially when they were accompanied with adverbs and
prepositions (Kotani and Suzuki, 1988). Thus in spoken English it is very important to grasp the context accurately and to pick one
appopriate meaning of the basic word from the context. It may be
one of the difficulties for the learners in understanding spoken English.
The purpose of this study was to investigate how much the Japanese
college students acquired conceptual meanings of the basic verbs which
were used as phrasal verbs. In this study, the students were given
the vocabulary tests to examine their knowledge of the phrasal verbs,
where the phrasal verbs in the tests retained the primary meanings
of the verbs themselves. These empirical vocabulary tests were com-
posed in order to analyze how the students use the basic verbs with
prepositions or adverbs to form the phrases, so that their acquisition level of the verbs is discussed, considering the comprehension process.
4
PROCEDURE
1) subjects
The subjects were 507 college students, mostly freshmen and so-
phomores. Three fourth of the subjects were studying Engineering and the rest were majoring in either Spanish or Law.
2) vocabulary test
Two sets of vocabulary tests totally consisting of 40 sentences were
made. The first task was to pick up the sentences from video-aided
textbooks and the books of communicative grammar and vocabulary.
The sentences chosen from the textbooks included the verb phrases
using seven out of the 13 basic verbs, which had been selected in the
previous study. The seven verbs were get, go, look, put, run, take and turn. The style of the tests was multiple choice. The subjects
were asked to fill in the blanks of the sentences by choosing the
appropriate word from 7 or 8 alternatives. The more alternatives there
are, the lower the probability of picking out the correct answer by
chance. They were also allowed to use these alternatives as many times
as they liked. In this way, it is assumed that the test examines their
productive knowledge of the target words. Out of 20 questions in each test, half of them required verbs and the other half, adverbs or
prepositions. The students were asked to mark their answers on marx cards, in order to simplify the scoring and to make efficient statistical
calculations of the data by computer. The words capitalized in [
were the synonyms or paraphrases of the target pharses. These clues
were added to the questions whose contexts were not clarified enough
to find the appropriate words for the blanks (See Appendix).
Immediately after collecting the vocabulary tests, the same tests
with the correct answers were distributed to the subjects (See Appen-
dix). They were assinged to write Japanese translations for the target
phrases in order to find out whether they could understand when they saw the target pharasal verbs in contexts, to determine their receptive
knowledge.
THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS 5
RESULTS and DISCUSSION
The two sets of vocabulary tests were conducted twice respectively,
in January and April, 1989. The data between the January and April
tests were compared in order to examine the consistency of the
difficulty of each question.
Table 1 shows the mean in each test, where the possiblity of the
tests were all 20 points. The average score of the January test in
TEST B was higher than the other tests.
TABLE I. THE MEANS OF THE VOCABULARY TESTS
TEST A
TEST B
No. of Subjects V oc. Tests Japanese trans.
January
April
112-
98- 1-2107. 2 pts
7. 5 pts 14. 8 pts
January
April
141-
157- 1-2989. 8 pts
7. 7 pts 11. 8 pts
In order to take a look at the consistency of difficulty of each question,
between the January and April tests, the correlation coefficient (the
Pearson product moment correlation) was computed. The coefficiency
r.. 74 indicates the significance of the correlation between the data
of the January and the April tests (See Figures 1-1,4).
Interestingly enough, the inappropriate verbs chosen by more than
20% of the students were almost the same in both the January and
the April tests as well. For example, in Question 9, TEST A, the
sentence was "When did your neighbors (get) back from their holidays?"
In the January test, the correct answer rate was 27. 6%, the second
highest percentage of the verb chosen was go, at 34. 7%, and third
choice was turn, at 29. 0%, On the other hand, the correct answer
rate in the April test was 20. 5%, the second highest was also go, at
33. 0 % and the third one was turn, at 30. 4%.
From the correlational analysis, therefore, the data of the April
tests is considered consistant with the January tests and reliable for
further analyses (See Table 2).
6
un 44 g W
E-4 r W E-+
vz 1
CD i4 Z
• bd) T.4
(~zcn~wx c~~H 1 o )
•GET back
PUT up
RUN out
GET off
TAKE out
GO on
LOOK up
TURN down rZi
TAKE up
•
1
t
;i4
H E
O C) CO t•-• cD
(¢zcnwx
O O O 0 LCD CO CV
¢Fw
o0
i
w
Cin
EH
E
1
bo
Q~coc10d'Mc<=3
(e4Zci WG4 E-iW \)
GET throu
.GET up
LOOK up
GO back
PUT away
GET on
TURN up
RUN down
TURN on
TAKE off
a
P4
E-+
W
w (Qzt/Z,~~Wx \)
•run ON
go THROU
get OVER
put BACK
take DOWN
go OVER
turn OUT
take OFF
look ROUND
put OUT
look DOWN
x
THE
TABLE 2 THE ANSWER
ACQUISITION OF
RATES OF THE
THE BASIC
VOCABULARY
VERBS
TESTS
[TEST A] TOTAL JAN. APR.
1. TAKE off
(PUT) 2. TURN on
(PUT)
(TAKE)
(GET) 3. RUN down
4. TURN up
(LOOK) 5. GET on
6. PUT away
(TAKE) 7. Go back
8. LOOK up
(TURN) 9. GOT back
(GO)
(TURN)
10. GET through
(RUN) 11. look BACK
12. get OVER
(ON)
(DOWN) 13. put DOWN
(ON)
14. take OVER
(AWAY)
(ROUND) 15. Iook ROUND
(OVER) 16. go BY
(AWAY)
(OFF) 17. get OFF
(AWAY) 18. turn OVER
(DOWN) 19. run AWAY
20. get ON
32. 0
50. 0
9. 5
26. 7
22. 4
21. 0
37. 6
38. 6
38. 1
55. 2
31. 4
32. 4
59. 5
13.8
36. 7
29. 5
33. 8
30. 0
39. 1
32. 4
59. 1
26. 7
33. 3
21. 0
40. 0
8. 1
29. 5
29. 5
46. 7
35.7
15.2
41. 0
21. 4
40. 0
24. 1
36. 7
22. 0
79.2
50. 0
29. 6
53. 1
8. 9
21. 4
29.4
/ 31. 6
40. 8
37. 8
61. 2
15. 3
45. 9
62. 2
12. 2
33. 7
27. 5
34. 7
29.6
34. 7
39. 8
53. 1
12.3
42. 7
21. 4
21. 4
40. 8
8. 2
27. 6
36. 7
56. 1
32. 7
15. 3
36. 7
21. 4
43. 9
22. 5
36. 7
22. 5
74. 5
49. 0
[TEST B] TOTAL JAN.
47.3
33. 9
10. 2
32. 7
24. 5
42. 9
36. 6
38. 4
50. 0
45. 5
20. 5
57. 1
15. 2
39.3
20. 5
33. 0
30. 4
42.9
25.9
64. 3
38.4
25. 0
20. 5
39. 2
8.0
31. 3
23. 2
38. 4
38. 4
15.8
44. 6
21. 4
36.6
31. 3
36. 6
28. 6
77. 7
50. 9
1. TAKE up
(PUT) 2. TURN down
(PUT) 3. LOOK up
(TURN)
(RUN) 4. GO on
5. TAKE out
6. GET off
7. RUN out
S. PUT up
(GET)
GET back
(GO)
(TURN) 10. look DOWN
11. put OUT
(ON)
(DOWN)
12. look ROUND
(OVER)
13. take OFF
14. turn OUT
15. go OVER
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
(THROUGH) take DOWN
(ON)
put BACK
get OVER
(THROUGH)
go THROUGH run ON
(OVER)
48. 7
25. 8
65. 4
/
20. 1
20. 1
20. 5
66.4
66. 1
69. 5
43. 3
42. 0
23. 5
18. 5
40. 3
28. 9
65. 4
14. 1
36. 2
26. 2
41. 9
27.5
66.4
45. 3
22. 1
58. 1
37.2
23. 5
70. 1
25. 8
47. 3
40. 3
32.2
22. 8
46. 4
28. 6
88.6
/ 25. 0
23. 6
69. 3
79. 3
82.8
52. 9
52. 9
/ 20. 7
37. 1
29. 3
61. 1
44. 3
32. 7
47. 1
25. 7
79.3
47. 1
24. 3
64.3
45. 0
82. 1
31.4
52.9
45. 7
50. 7
7
C~o)
APR.
51.0
22. 9
45. 2
22. 9
15. 9
22.3
64. 3
54. 8
57. 9
35.3
32. 5
28. 0
16. 6
43.3
28. 0
63. 7
19. 8
42. 7
37. 6
29. 3
55. 4
43.9
15. 3
52.9
30. 6
29. 2
59. 9
20. 4
42. 7
35. 7
15. 9
27. 4
8
a) Receptive vs. Productive knowledge As Lado (1964) explains, our recognition vocabulary is much larger
than our productive vocabulary in the cognitive views of comprehen-
sion. In this experiment, the scores of the vocabulary tests for their
productive knowledge and the comprehension check by the Japanese translation for their receptive knowledge of the target pharasl verbs
were compared (See Figures 2-1,--,4).
T--tests (See Table 3) significantly show the superiority of the com-
prehension check test, suggesting that receptive knowledge is greater than the productive knowledge. This means, the subjects recognize
the meanings when they see the target verb phrases but they can't recall them in the appropriate context.
TABLE 3 DIFFERENCE OF ANSWER RATES BETWEEN THE VOCABULARY TESTS AND
THE JAPANESE COMPREHENSION CHECK
TEST A VOC
COMP
TEST B VOC
COMP
n x S tob.
112 37.9
76. 7
18. 25
18. 79
5. 68*
157 38. 6
59. 1
17.42
18. 30
4. 47*
*p> 0. 005
b) The comparison between the good vs. poor students determined by the vocabulary test scores
In order to find out the difficulty of the concepts of the target basic
verbs, the error analysis was taken by comparing the two groups
which were divided by the vocabulary test scores. The subjects who
got more than 9 points (Group A) or less than 6 points (Group B) were chosen as comparison group. The answer rates of each question
in the two groups were compared, to find out what factors had made
the questions difficult for Group B.
Figures 3-1r 4 compare the correct answer rates between Group A
and Group B for each question. According to the figures, questions
THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS 9
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it
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8mo°o°.c°nc°-»c°~c. s f~zcn*wx x.tHw o }
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put DOWN
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THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS 1I
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No. 3, 5, 6, 11, 12, 15, 18 and 20 in TEST A and questions No. 2, 5, 6,
7, 8, 13, 14, 16 and 19 in TEST B more obviously separate the two
groups than the other questions. These differences, first of all, indicate that Group A seemed to have learned the target phrases more accu-
rately than Group B. The phrases were presumably introduced as
idiomatic expressions in highschools as follows;
[e.g.]] put their toys (away)kft 6 get (over) a bad cold
look (round) the stationka1-
(turn) down the stereo <
(take) out three books 6
(get) off at the next stop 6 turn (out) to be a good experience r L b> 6
take (down) everything-'=1R6
The second significant difference is that Group A can apply the
concept of each verb and adverb/preposition to make a phrase.
[e.g. 2] tears (ran) down her face get (on) the horse
(put) up your handslook (back) on his childhood the boat turned (over)go (through) its narrow entrance
The verbs and the adverbs/prepositions of these phrases remain
their indivisual meanings. But they are not the verbs collocated with
adverbs and prepositions make particular meanings. The ability to
combine the verbs and adverbs/prepositions to use them appropriately
to the contexts differs depending on how much they understand the
concept of each word, that is, their acquisition levels of each word.
The vocabulary acquisition research on native language has concluded
that the older children tended to choose the abstract meaning of a
word while the younger children prefer the meaning fixed in a
THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS 13
favorable or familiar context. It demonstrated, in the aspcet of developmental stages of vocabulary acquisition, that the depth of the
comprehension differed in the older and younger children (Feifel and
Large, 1950, Russel, 1962, Kruglore, 1953).
Thus, it follows that the students in Group A, who got higher
scores than the students in Group B, have bigger vocabularies. As
well as the vocabulary size, the cognitive levels of comprehension of
the target verbs and adverbs/prepositions differ in the two groups.
On the other hand, it is suspected, from the error analysis that
Group B tend to take two steps to come up with their answers. First
they tried to find out the concept that they had to convey in their
native language, and then, with the fixed expression in their native
language, they tried to find a word which has the common concept
from their knowledge of that word.
[e.g. 3] Mother told her children to (put) their toys away because it was bedtime.
26% of the subjects in Group B chose take instead of put here.
They tried to express "to take the things away to another place
in order to clear the table or floor."
[e. g. 4] I looked (round) the station but he couldn't see my friend anywhere.
From the Japanese translation of the target pharse, "j",
it is suspected that they tried to find the word expressing "'"",
resulting 37% of the subjects in Group B chose over.
[e. g. 5] The library allows you to (take) out three books at a time. The subjects presumably interpreted the Japanese translation of
the target phrase, "L ft 't", as the action that a person takes
the booK outside the library and look at them at home. 25% of
the subjects used look in this sentence.
[e.g. 6] The boat turned (over), throwing the boys into the water. 30% of the subjects chose down and 26% of them chose back
I4
in this sentence. Judging from their choice of verbs, it seems that
they tried to express the conditions or appearence of the boat
after it turned over, which the Japanese counterpart " <
also refers to. That is, they tried to deliver that the boat was
upside-down or that the bottom of the boat, which is like the
back of our body, appeared in the surface by turning over.
As these examples are demonstrated, we can easily suspect that the
subjects in Group B tend to translate the target phrase first and then
pick up the reasonable word from their translated meanings or concepts. The second point which displays their weakness was that they
seemed mixed up with the concepts or the use of the verbs among,
put, get and take. Here are three examples.
[e. g.7] Would you (turn) down the stereo ? I can't study. PUT
(23%) TAKE (25%)
[e. g. 8] If you would like to (get) off the next stop, push this button and the bus driver will notice it. TAKE (39%)
[e. g. 9] (put) up your hand, if you know the answer. GET (55 % )
However, this tendency can be seen not only in Group B but in all
the subjects. For example, in the sentence, "Mr. Black (takes) off his
glasses, because it is time to go to bed", 50% of the subjects chose
put instead of take. Thirdly, the subjects in Group B seemed to have difficulty to use
the phrases in a different context from the one they expect from the
fixed translated meaning of the target phrase.
[e. g.10] When I showed Kenichi some pictures, he seems to look
(back) on his childhood.
The correct answer rate of this sentence in Group B was 22%. If
THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS 15
you understand the concept of "look back" and transmit the concept appropriately to the given context , you can predict that "look back"
also can be used as the meaning of "remember" . Actually, the answer rate of Group A on this question was pretty high (86%) .
This kind of conceptual transfer to a different conte xt must be difficult for the learners of foreign language , because the comprehension
by translating the words doesn't necessarily let the lear ners acquire syntactic and conceptual aspects of knowledge of the words as well. Thus as the following example shows , if the translation of the target phrase has implicitly a person as the subject , the learners hardly come up with the English counterpart in the sentence with an inanimate word as the subject.
[e. g.11] Business has been very bad lately but things are beginning to (look) up now.
The Japanese translation of "look up" is "J _EZ ", which is supposed to have a person as the subject in the Japanese structure , while in this sentence the subject is "business" . The correct answer rate of all the subjects at 18% shows the difficulty in understanding English as a subject-prominent language (Mitsutani , 1985) for the Japanese learners of English.
c) Interference by the transfer of Japanese translation
When the questions with low correct answer rates for all the subjects
were picked out, it was found out that the concepts of turn and over were confusing or ambiguous in these vocabulary tests .
[e. g. 12] The firemen (turned) the water on the next building to
put out the fire. PUT (28%) TAKE (22%)
[e. g. 13] The missing bag (turned) up, completely empty , in the lake. LOOK (38%)
I6
[e. g.14] Business has been very bad lately but things are beginning to (look) up now. TURN (37%)
[e. g.15] When did your neighbors (get) back from their holidays ? TURN (29%)
"Turn" in the example 12 means "to aim or point, set or direct
on a particular direction (Dictionary of Contemporary English,
Longman, 1987) ". Therefore, this sentence has to deliver that the
fireman changed the direction of the hoses. But the subjects
presumably could not find the word including this concept, so that they compromised to get a solution. Thus, over a half of the subjects
picked out either put (28%) to express that the firemen poured the water on the next building, or take (30%) to mean that the firemen
moved their hoses toward the next building.
The meaning of "turn" in the example 13 is "to (cause to) change
position or direction so as to face or move in a particular direction
(DCE, Lonman, 1987) ". The dictionary presents two kinds of sentences to introduce this
concept.
[1] She turned away and began to cry.
[1]' When they reached the boarder, they were turned back because
they had no passports.
[2] Our luck has turned.
It is noted when we translate [1] and [2], their meanings are ex-
pressed very differently in Japanese, while in English, "turn" in the
sentence [2] is merely used as a more abstract concept than the
sentence [1], according to the dictionary.
Thus it is predicted that the example 13 is difficult for the subjects.
In the exmaple 14, on the other hand, the subjects oversimplified
this concept. But actually "look up" is an informal idiomoatic phrase.
In the example 15, the subjects wanted to convey the meaning that "they changed the direction" . However, "get back home" means "not
THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS 17
merely change the direction against where they had been heading
for," but "return to their original place ," so that the meanings were slightly different.
[e.g. 16] Why don't you take the children (over) to their grand-parents' house ? AWAY (30%) ROUND (30%)
[e. g.17] It's terribly noisy here, with planes going (over) our heads all the time. THROUGH (58%)
[e. g.18] Many cars are running in this street. How can we get
(over) ? THROUGH (47%)
Over also seemed to include complicated concepts . "Over" in the example 16 means "across an edge , distance, or an open air". The subjects must grasp the concept that they (are willing to) go to their
grandparents' house although it takes time. Therefore in order to express the distance, 30% of the subjects chose "away ."
Over of the example 17 and 18 were mixed up with through . Over in the exmple 17 means "directly above: higher than , but not touching." over in the example 18 refers to "from side to side of, expecially by going up and then down again." Through has a meaning of "in at one side end or surface of (something) and out at the other ." The direct translation of "go over" in the example 17 and "get over" in
the example 18 can be both "A6". "3&6" includes part of the
concepts of "over" and "through," that is, r k Z ~> -Na ` and 14t L < (Koizumi et al., 1989). However
the Japanese counterpart to over doesn't include the meaning "not
touching".
Therefore, it is obvious that the learners have difficulty in distin-
guishing the concept of "over" from "through" only by the translated meanings.
Lastly, there are two examples demonstrated that their vocabulary
acquisition process is interfered with the rote-memory of the fixed
IS
translation of the target phrases.
[e. g.19] Put (dowm) your suitcases. You can leave them for a while. ON (40%)
[e. g. 20:] I put the garden chairs (out) when the sun shone but soon had to take them in. ON (36%)
In the example 19 and 20, the subjects presumably came up with
the meaning of "-i r < " in Japanese. And the error analysis clearly
shows that the concepts of "E<" has just one phrasal expression "put on" in their minds .
CONCLUSIONS
The article reviews of the vocabulary acquisition process indicates
that the importance of learning words associated with contexts. As
far as the use of basic verbs is concerned, the flexibility to use the
verbs in various contexts must be one of the keys to expand the
expressions in spoken English.
The target phrasal verbs in the tests were not idiomatic expressions
for native speakers of English. Thus, one native English teacher
wondered what made "put the chair out in the garden" more difficult
than "put the glass on the table" for the subjects, because both sent-
ences simply have "put" followed by either a preposition or an adverb.
On the other hand, for Japanese learners of English "put on" is
regarded as the collocation or the idiom which can be associated with
Japanese translation "j < ". The present empirical study demonstrated, in this sense, that the
learners tend to be interfered by the fixed concepts of the target
verbs which they have learned with Japanese translation, when they
try to activate their knowledge about the target verbs to use them in
various context. What was lack in their vocabulary building process was that they
haven't learned the
contexts accompanied
words merely told the
THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS 19
syntactic knowledge and linguistic and social
with the target verbs. The translation of the
learners the semantic information.
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Burtis, Mary E. "Vocabulary testing and vocabulary instruction," in The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition, 1987, 37-52.
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Kotani, Yukiko and Hiroko Suzuki. "Vocabulary Acquisition of Japanese College Students: Analyses on 13 Basic Verbs," Research Reports of
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[APPENDIX] [Vocabulary Building : TEST B]
Choose the right words.
a) Please (1) these letters up to the main office on the fifth floor. [CARRY * TO A HIGHER LEVEL]
b) Would you (2) down the stereo ? I can' t study. c) Business has been very bad lately but things are beginning to (3) up
now. [IMPROVE]
d) The fall of snow has blocked the road, so we can't (4) on any further. [CONTINUE]
e) The library allow you to (5) out three books at a time.
f) If you would like to (6) off at the next stop, push this button and the bus driver will notice it. [LEAVE A VEHICLE]
g) I went to the shop for some milk but they had (7) out. [NO LONGER
THE ACQUISITION OF THE BASIC VERBS
HAVE A SUPPLY]
h) (8) up, your hand, if you know the answer. [RAISE] 1) When did your neighbors (9) back from their holidays?
21
1. get 2. go 3. look 4. put 5. take 6. turn 7. run
a) Looking [10] at my foot, I saw my ring which I had lost for a few
days.
b) I put the garden chairs [11] when the sun shone, but soon had to take them in again because it began raining.
c) I look [12] the station but couldn't see my friend anywhere. [SEARCH]
d) A lot of TV stars and singers take [13] for Hawaii as soon as they have finished work in the end of the year. [LEAVE]
e) The accident has turned [14] to be a good experience for the boys after all. [RESULT]
f) It's terribly noisy here, with planes going [15] our heads all the time.
[PASS] g) Mr Cooper's secretary took [16] everything that the chairman said at
the meeting. [RECORD * IN WRITING]
h) When you have finished with the book, put it [17] on the shelf. [RETURN]
i) Many cars are running in this street. How can we get [18] ? [CROSS A ROAD]
j ) The piano won't go [19] its narrow entrance, it will have to come [*] the window.
k) This hair-drier runs [20] very little elecricity.
1. back 2. down 3. off 4. out 5. over 6. on 7. round 8. through
[Vocabulary Building: TEST B]
VDUt Lo
[A] 1) Please take these letters up to the main office on the fifth floor. 2) Would you turn down the stereo? I can't study. 3) Business has been very bad lately but things are beginning to look up
now.
4) The fall of snow has blocked the road, so we can' t go on any further. 5) The library allow you to take out three books at a time. 6) If you would like to get off at the next stop, push this button and the
22
bus driver will notice it.
7) 1 went to the shop for some milk but they had run out. 8) Put up your hand, if you know the answer.
9) When did your neighbors get back from their holidays ? [B] 10) Looking down at my foot, 1 saw my ring which I had lost for a few
days. 11) I put the garden chairs out when the sun shone, but soon had to take
them in again because it began raining.
12) I look round the station but couldn't see my fried anywhere. 13) A lot of TV stars and singers take off for Hawaii as soon as they
have finished work in the end of the year. 14) The accident has turned out to be a good experience for the boys after all. 15) It's terribly noisy here, with planes going over our heads all the time. 16) Mr Cooper's secretary took down everything that the chairman said at
the meeting.
17) When you have finished with the book, put it back on the shelf. 18) Many cars are running in this street. How can we get over ? 19) The piano won't go through its narrow entrance, it will have to come
through the window. 20) This hair-drier runs on very little elecricity.
1..
5.
9.
13.
17.
2.
6.
10.
14.
18.
3.
7.
11.
15.
19.
4.
8.
12.
16.
20.
