After this incident I went to Nainital, and returned after nearly a month. I had _____ (21) taken _____ (22) my clothes when I saw Gangu standing _____ (23) a new baby. He was _____ (24) with joy. Even Nanda _____ (25) not have _____ (26) such joy _____ (27) getting Krishna. His face had the same _____ (28) that _____ (29) on the face of a _____ (30) man after a full meal. taken _____ my clothes when I saw Gangu standing (Select the word or group of words that best fills this blank in the passage.)
- (a)out
- (b)away
- (c)off
- (d)on
Correct — C, 'off'. 'Take off' is the phrasal verb English uses for removing clothes, and it is the exact partner of 'put on'. The narrator has come back from a month away and is doing the first thing a traveller does indoors, which is why the sentence needs this particular particle and no other.
- (a)out — 'Take out' means to remove something from inside something else, as one takes a book out of a bag; clothes on the body are not inside anything.
- (b)away — 'Take away' means to carry something off elsewhere, so it would describe someone removing the clothes from the room rather than from himself.
- (d)on — 'Take on' means to accept a task or to face an opponent; the verb for putting clothes on the body is 'put on', never 'take on'.
A phrasal verb is a verb plus a particle whose meaning cannot be worked out from the two parts separately, and 'take' forms a large family of them — take off, take out, take away, take on, take over, take up.
All four options are real particles that combine with 'take', so none can be rejected as ungrammatical. What decides the blank is the object standing right after it, 'my clothes', because English fixes the pairing 'put on' and 'take off' for garments. Reading the object before choosing the particle is the habit this item rewards.
- 'Take off' also means to leave the ground, which is why an aircraft's departure is a take-off.
- 'Put on' and 'take off' are the settled pair for clothes, shoes and spectacles.
- 'Take on' means to accept work or responsibility, or to face a rival.
- Choosing 'out' by thinking of taking clothes out of a suitcase rather than off the body.
- Mixing up 'take on' with 'put on'.
Asked as a selecting-words item — one passage is printed and each numbered blank in it is a separate question.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the word that best fills the blank — 'Please take _____ your shoes before entering.'
- (a)on
- (b)off
- (c)up
- (d)in
Answer(b) off — 'take off' is the verb used of removing what one is wearing.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Choose the word that best fills the blank — 'She agreed to take _____ the extra duties.'
- (a)off
- (b)on
- (c)away
- (d)out
Answer(b) on — 'take on' means to accept work or responsibility.