Fill in the blank with the correct phrasal verb.
He ______ one morning and surprised everyone.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: A
Explanation
Correct Answer
turned up
Explanation
The sentence describes an unexpected arrival, where a person arrived or appeared somewhere suddenly in the morning, catching everyone off guard. To solve this quickly for an exam, analyze both the contextual clues and the verb tenses of the choices.
The phrase "and surprised everyone" implies an unexpected appearance or arrival. The phrasal verb 'turned up' means to arrive or appear, especially unexpectedly or after being absent. Furthermore, the sentence describes a completed past action, indicated by the word "surprised," which means the correct phrasal verb must also be in the past tense.
Evaluating the incorrect choices, 'turned in' means to go to bed or to hand something over to authorities. 'Turn out' is in the present tense, and its past tense meaning would be to prove to be or to produce. 'Turn down' means to reject an offer or reduce volume. Therefore, Option 1 is the only choice that fits both the meaning and the required past tense perfectly.
Key Points
Selecting the correct phrasal verb requires matching the idiomatic definition of the verb-particle combination with the situational context of the sentence.
The sentence requires a past-tense intransitive phrasal verb to maintain tense consistency across the coordinate clause.