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
Answer
Why
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.
Why the others are wrong
- (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.
Concept
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.
Key facts
- '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.
Study next
Common traps
- 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.
Related PYQs
No directly related past PYQ was found.
Practice
- 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.