26 Talking about size and number

A

B

C Increasing and totalling

phrasal verb definition of phrasal verb

build up (sth) / build (sth) up

bump up sth / bump sth up

round up sth / round sth up1 increase in amount, size or strength, or make something increase Paula has been doing a lot of long-distance running to try to build up her stamina.

(informal) increase the size or amount of something, e.g. price, by a large amount Hotels in this town always bump their prices up when the film festival is on.

increase a number to the nearest whole number The taxi fare came to £29.25, but we rounded it up and gave the driver £30.

push up sth / push sth up

put on sth / put sth on increase the amount, number or value of something The TV series about Caitlin Cliff’s pottery pushed up the value of her work.

if a person or animal puts on weight, they become heavier Bobby’s put on six kilos since he stopped playing football.

amount to sth become a particular amount

add up

(informal) increase and become a large number or amount Bringing up children is an expensive business. Clothes, shoes, food, toys, – it all adds up!

example

When we added living costs to the fees, the cost of the course amounted to £34,000.

1 (opposite: round down sth / round sth down = reduce to nearest whole number)

Decreasing

Ice cream sales are high in summer but tail off as winter approaches. [decrease in amount] Since they employed a new chef, the quality of the food has really fallen off. [become smaller or lower] We’ll never be able to get out of the car park now. Let’s wait till the football crowds thin out a bit. [become fewer in number] Laura was so keen to get rid of her old car that I was able to get her to knock the price down a bit. [(informal) reduce] I’m afraid we have no choice but to slim the business down and some redundancies will be announced next week. [make it smaller in size, often by employing fewer people]

Staying the same

Exam results out: Differences narrowing between boys and girls

This year 16-year-old girls have again done much better than boys in their school exams. However, the differences in grades between the sexes now seem to be levelling off1 by the time pupils reach 18. At 18, boys’ results now average out at 66% per exam, whereas the equivalent figure for girls is 67%. Several years ago there was concern at the rapidly rising rate of academic success among girls in comparison with boys, but this rate has clearly now flattened out2. It is believed that greater use of technology in the classroom is helping to balance things out3 , reviving boys’ interest in their schoolwork.

1 becoming more similar (can also be level out) 2 stopped increasing or decreasing and begun to stay at the same level 3 make things equal

26.1

26.2

26.3

26.4

Correct the mistakes with the phrasal verbs in these sentences.

1 The total cost of our holiday amounted at nearly £500. 2 The bill came to £22.20 each, so we rounded it over to £25 to include a tip. 3 Helena has pushed on a lot of weight recently. 4 It will take Joe some time to build on his strength again aft er such a long illness. 5 The college hoped that the advert would push off enrolments for its new course. 6 The new fertiliser claims to dump up agricultural yields considerably.

Match the statements 1–6 with the illustrations a–f.

a b c d e

1 Sales levelled out at £600. 4 They knocked the price down. 2 The prices averaged out at £600. 5 Sales tailed off later in the week. 3 The price was rounded down. 6 The price was bumped up.

Answer the questions.

1 The new manager has decided to slim the business down. What does the new manager intend to do? 2 We picnicked in the forest in a place where the trees were beginning to thin out. Why might this have been a good place for a picnic? 3 The graph showing hits on our website begins to flatten out in May. How many hits did the website get in June? 4 Interest in politics seems to be falling off now, particularly among young people. Are young people more or less interested in politics than they used to be? 5 Joseph’s lack of interest in housework is balanced out by his love of gardening. How does the speaker probably feel about Joseph and what he does at home?

Complete this email with phrasal verbs from the opposite page.

f

Reply Forward

Dear Gordon, Sorry I haven’t been in touch for a while. I’m not fi nding it so easy running my own business. We’ve had to (1) our prices because of strong competition, so our profi ts are beginning to (2). They still (3) a pretty sizeable sum, but even so, it’s a bit worrying to see them (4). I’m planning to close one of our factories. I hope that by (5) the business in this way, I may be able to (6) our profi ts again. All the worry has made me (7) a lot of weight too because I tend to eat snacks to make me feel

better. And as you know, it all ! (8)

Esther