She has been lying in bed for the last fortnight. I hope she will ________.
- (a)come out
- (b)pull out
- (c)pull through
- (d)go out
Correct — C, 'pull through'. 'Pull through' means to come safely out of a serious illness or a crisis, and the first sentence has set up exactly that — a fortnight spent in bed. 'I hope she will pull through' is what an English speaker says about someone who has been ill and is expected to recover.
- (a)come out — Means to emerge, or to become publicly known; it needs something to come out of and on its own it does not mean 'recover'.
- (b)pull out — Means to withdraw from an undertaking — a team pulls out of a tournament, a country pulls out of a treaty.
- (d)go out — Means to leave the house, or, of a fire or a light, to stop burning.
A phrasal verb changes meaning completely with its particle, and 'pull through' is the fixed one for surviving an illness.
Two options begin with 'pull' and two with a verb of motion, which is the whole design of the item — the particle is doing the work, not the verb. Read the first sentence for the situation, a fortnight in bed, and only one of the four is about coming safely out of it. The same phrasal verb serves for a crisis of any kind, so 'the company pulled through' is equally good English.
- 'Pull through' means to survive an illness or a crisis.
- 'Pull out' means to withdraw, 'pull off' means to succeed at something difficult, and 'pull up' means to stop.
- 'Lie in bed' is the ordinary way English describes being laid up by illness.
- Choosing 'pull out' because it also begins with 'pull'.
- Ignoring the first sentence, which is what supplies the illness.
Asked as a selecting-words item — pick the word or words most appropriate for the blank.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Fill the blank — He was badly hurt, but the doctors say he will ________.
- (a)pull out
- (b)pull through
- (c)pull up
- (d)pull off
Answer(b) pull through — to come safely out of a serious illness or injury.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Fill the blank — She has almost ________ her illness now.
- (a)got over
- (b)got up
- (c)got in
- (d)got along
Answer(a) got over — to get over an illness is to recover from it.