19 Making progress

A

B Beginning and ending

phrasal verb with collocations definition of phrasal verb example

new businesses / political movements / buildings spring

up

suddenly appear or begin to exist At the turn of the century, new left-wing political movements sprang up.

new buildings / factories / cafés

sprout up

suddenly appear or begin to exist Pavement cafés have suddenly sprouted up all over the town.

open up opportunities/ possibilities or opportunities/ possibilities open up

break up a meeting/party or a meeting/party breaks up

finish with magazine/ scissors/salt

trend/business/price bottoms

out

make possible or become possible The new shopping centre will open up all sorts of job opportunities.

end, people start to leave I’m sorry to break up the party, but it’s getting very late.

no longer need Can you let me have the magazine when you’ve finished with it?

reach a low level and stay there The share price fell steadily last year but has now bottomed out.

game/match/anger/protest/ conflict peters out1

wind up a business/interview/ meeting gradually become less strong and then stop completely

end The crowd started shouting and protesting, but the protests soon petered out when they saw the armed police.

Jack intends to wind up his business soon.

1 an interesting phrasal verb in that, unusually, to peter does not exist as a verb on its own

Helping and hindering progress

We couldn’t continue when our cheap supply of materials dried up1 . We had some staffing problems but the new HR person has magicked them away4 .

Things’ve been falling apart2 since the new manager arrived.

We can’t do anything at the moment because the money’s run out.

We’re pressing on3 though we’ve had lots of problems. We can’t do anything at the moment because the money’s run out. We got up to the third stage of our plan but haven’t made much progress since.

My PA has really improved things recently, so I hope we can hang on to5 her.

1 came to an end 2 not working well 3 continuing in a determined way 4 made them disappear, as if by magic 5 keep 6 gradually reducing

How’s progress with your business?

The CEO’s whittling away (at)6 the authority of middle managers.

19.1

19.2

Answer these questions.

1 Would you be happy or unhappy if the exchange rate between your currency and the US dollar bottomed out? 2 Which two verbs from the opposite page could you use to complete this sentence?

Wind farms seem to be / up all over the countryside these days. 3 Open up and break up can both be used with or without an object. True or false? 4 If someone whittles away your confidence, do you feel more or less confident? 5 If your anger peters out, does it become more or less strong?

Complete the film blurbs below, using the correct verb or particle from the opposite page.

19.3

19.4

MOVIES

In the Net (PG)

Leaving home and going off to college (1) up new possibilities for Nancy, a shy girl from a small town. However, she soon finds that her life starts falling (2) when she gets involved with a handsome basketball player. Desperate to hang (3) to her new love, she embarks on a dangerous course of action.

The Polyard Murders (18)

As the food, drink and conversation dry (4), a social gathering at a large house in the town of Polyard (5) up around midnight and everyone heads home. However, two couples vanish on the way home and a murder hunt begins. Four more murders take place, but the killer’s luck finally runs (6) when a new, young detective from the city takes over the case.

Rewrite these sentences to make them sound less formal using phrasal verbs instead of the underlined words.

1 When you no longer need the scissors, could you pass them to me? 2 They terminated the business in 2014 after a year of low sales. 3 OK, so who’s made the bottle opener vanish? It was here a minute ago! 4 We’ve had some setbacks but we’ll continue undeterred. 5 I only reached page 12 of the book before I got bored and stopped reading it.

Explain the play on words with the phrasal verbs in these sentences.

1 Mr Bellamy decided to wind up his clock-making business after 35 years. 2 Three new greengrocers’ shops have sprouted up in the town centre recently. 3 Even though the dry cleaner’s was not getting much business, the owners decided to press on. 4 A new trampoline factory has sprung up on the outskirts of the town. 5 The Speedyheels training shoe company has run out of money.