Unpredictable verbs 2

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Unpredictable Verbs 2

This exercise practises verbs which are formed from nouns but whose meaning can not be accurately predicted from the meaning of the noun. Read the sentences and look at the underlined verbs/verb phrases. Then choose one of the nouns used as verbs from the list which has the same meaning in the context of the sentence and write it in at the end. Make sure you use the correct grammatical forms and constructions.

address, butter up, cloud, drum up, earth, fence, field, phase in, scheme, weather

1. Since many of the first choice players were injured, Arsenal had to put out to play a weakened team and lost heavily as a result.

2. When the king found out that some of his advisers were secretly planning to depose him and make his brother king, he had them arrested and imprisoned.

3. There's no point in trying to say nice things about me. Nothing you say will make me change my mind. You can't borrow the car and that's final.

4. The Prime Minister appeared on TV to try to gather support for his new policies, but the general public does not seem to be enthusiastic about them.

5. Let's just stick to the subject of the discussion today. If we talk about other matters we're only going to confuse the issue.

6. The government had decided to gradually introduce the changes to social security over the next three years so that people would have time to get used to them.

7. Even though the company lost a lot of money during the economic crisis, it managed to come through the situation and is now increasing productivity again.

8. We have to turn attention to the problem of poverty in our society. If we don't try to deal with it, it will continue to get worse.

9. If electrical equipment is not properly connected to the ground it can be very dangerous.

10. Although Jimmy never stole anything himself, he used to receive and sell stolen goods for the local thieves and burglars. He made a lot of money out of it before the police caught him.