Back to Front Prepositions 2

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This exercise practises using words and phrases which are composed of a preposition and a noun or verb. The preposition can be placed before or after the noun resulting in two compounds which are often confused. Look at the words in the list and decide which of the words/phrases should go in the gaps. The pairs may be noun-noun, verb-verb or noun-verb. Make sure you put them into the correct form in each sentence if necessary.

take in - intake, backdate - date back, downturn - turn down, offset - set off, outbreak - break-out, outjump - jump out

1. Here is the news. There are new fears of massive job losses as a result of the recent ____________________ in the economy.

2. Much of the £10 million loss that the club has made this year has been ____________________ by the £8 million we received for the sale of our best player, Darren Craig.

3. After the ____________________ of six inmates from Bleakmoor prison last night the police are conducting an intensive search of the area to capture them.

4. After Leonard had won £8 million in the National Lottery, it was very hard for him to ____________________ just what a huge change it was going to make to his life.

5. Vasilev of Russia achieved a personal best at 2 metres 75 centimetres, but he was ____________________ by the German, Muller, who reached 2m 80cm.

6. The new pay increase will be included in this month's salary, but it will be ____________________ over the last six months, so you'll get quite a lot more.

7. The college had record passes in all subjects last year, so we hope that we can keep it up with the new ____________________ of students this year.

8. Following the recent floods thousands of people are homeless and without a supply of clean water to drink. Health officials are worried about possible ____________________ of cholera and typhoid.

9. While I was looking at all the designs for the new sports centre, this one really ____________________ at me from all the others. I knew that this was the only one to consider.

10. We should all get to bed now because we have to ____________________ very early in the morning to complete the walk.

11. The celebration of this festival ____________________ ancient times. It's one of the oldest of its type in the world.

12. After a great deal of thought I've decided to ____________________ the offer of a new contract here and look for a new job abroad. I feel it's time to move on.