Which one of the following phrasal verbs may be used in the blank space in the sentence, “I have to ____ (finish) this work before I leave tomorrow morning”?

Correct — A, (a) clear up.

‘Clear up’ is the phrasal verb English uses for disposing of work that is still outstanding. One clears up the arrears, clears up the pending cases, clears up the backlog before proceeding on leave, and the picture behind the phrase is a surface being cleared — a desk, a table, a docket — so that nothing is left standing on it. Applied to a task, it means to bring the remaining part of it to an end.

The sentence is built for exactly that sense. It names a definite quantity of work, ‘this work’, and it sets a deadline, ‘before I leave tomorrow morning’. Both elements point at work that must not be left behind, and clearing up is what is done with such work. Substitute the phrase and the sentence reads naturally: I have to clear up this work before I leave tomorrow morning.

The phrase has two other current senses that a candidate should know, because either may be tested elsewhere. It means to resolve or explain — to clear up a misunderstanding, to clear up a doubt about the entitlement — and it is used of the weather, which clears up when the clouds go. All three senses share the same idea of removing what obstructs, whether that is work, confusion or cloud.

One feature of the option set is worth noticing before answering. This booklet prints the intended meaning in brackets, and in two items of this phrasal-verb block an option has been made by taking that bracketed word and hanging a particle on it. The gloss is there to tell you what the phrase must mean, not to supply the phrase.

Why the others are wrong

• (b)clean up — ‘Clean up’ is about dirt and order, not about completion. It means to make a place clean or tidy — clean up the store room, clean up after the function — and it has two figurative uses: to rid an organisation of corruption or malpractice, as in cleaning up a department, and informally to make a large profit. None of these is the disposal of pending work. The option is a trap of sound rather than of sense, since ‘clean’ and ‘clear’ differ by a single letter and the two phrases are constantly confused in speech; the test is what is being got rid of, dirt in the one case and outstanding business in the other.
• (c)finish up — The Commission’s key does not take this option, and the reason lies in what the item is asking rather than in any fault in the English. ‘Finish up’ is a real phrase, and it does mean to bring something to an end. But the bracketed word in this stem is the gloss — it states the meaning the answer must carry — and an option formed by attaching a particle to the glossed verb itself supplies no phrasal verb in place of it; it simply hands the same verb back. The same shape is used at Q14 of this paper, where the gloss reads ‘(suited)’ and one option is ‘suit out’. Reading the bracketed word as a component of the answer rather than as its definition is what these two options are built to catch.
• (d)do away with — ‘Do away with’ means to abolish or get rid of something altogether — to do away with an outdated rule, to do away with the exemption, to do away with a post — and in a darker use it means to kill. Applied to this sentence it would say that the speaker intends to abolish the work rather than complete it, which is the opposite of what the deadline implies. It is a useful phrase to know for the statutory questions elsewhere in the paper, where provisions are done away with by amendment, but it cannot mean finishing a job.

The ‘clear’ family is small, useful and heavily tested, and its members are separated by what is being removed. Clear up removes outstanding work, or confusion, or cloud. Clear off and clear out mean to leave, the second also meaning to empty a place of its contents. Clear away removes things from a surface — clear away the papers. To clear a person is to find him free of blame; to clear a cheque is to pass it through the banking system; to clear goods is to get them released after payment of duty. The unifying idea is the removal of an obstruction.

Around it sit the other phrasal verbs of completion, and their differences are worth holding. Wind up is to conclude formally — wind up a discussion, wind up a company. Round off is to complete pleasingly. Wrap up is informal for concluding. Polish off is to finish quickly, usually food or a small task. Get through is to complete a quantity of work. See through is to stay with something until it is finished. Do away with, by contrast, does not complete anything; it removes the thing entirely.

The item also teaches something about examination design. Where a paper glosses the meaning, the gloss is a definition, and an option that reuses the glossed word is answering the wrong question — it matches the letters instead of supplying the idiom.

Key facts

• ‘Clear up’ means to dispose of outstanding work — to clear up the arrears, the pending cases or the backlog — and also to resolve a doubt or misunderstanding, and of weather to become fine.
• The sentence supplies both a fixed quantity of work and a deadline, which is the setting in which English uses ‘clear up’.
• ‘Clean up’ concerns dirt or malpractice, not completion; it differs from the answer by one letter and is a trap of sound.
• ‘Do away with’ means to abolish or get rid of something entirely, and in a darker use to kill; it removes the task rather than completing it.
• In this booklet’s phrasal-verb set the bracketed word is the gloss of the meaning wanted, and in two items an option has been built by attaching a particle to that glossed word.
• Other phrasal verbs of completion, each with its own colouring, are wind up, round off, wrap up, polish off, get through and see through.

Common traps

• Confusing ‘clear up’ with ‘clean up’. The two differ by a letter and by what is being removed — outstanding work in the one case, dirt or malpractice in the other.
• Treating the bracketed gloss as a piece of the answer, which is exactly what the option built from it invites.
• Choosing ‘do away with’ because it sounds decisive; it abolishes the work instead of finishing it.
• Answering the set item by item without noticing that this paper builds an option from the gloss word in two of the four phrasal-verb questions.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following phrasal verbs may be used in the blank space in the sentence, “The Regional Office was asked to ____ (dispose of) the arrears before the audit party arrived”?

  • (a)clear up
  • (b)clean up
  • (c)bring up
  • (d)take up

  Answer(a) clear up — outstanding work is cleared up, which is the disposal of what is still pending. ‘Clean up’ concerns dirt or malpractice, ‘bring up’ means to raise a matter, and ‘take up’ means to begin one.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which one of the following phrasal verbs may be used in the blank space in the sentence, “The committee recommended that the outdated rule be ____ (abolished)”?

  • (a)done away with
  • (b)cleared up
  • (c)cleaned up
  • (d)brought about

  Answer(a) done away with — to do away with a rule is to abolish it altogether. ‘Cleared up’ would mean the rule had been explained or the work under it finished, ‘cleaned up’ concerns tidiness or malpractice, and ‘brought about’ means caused to happen.