Choose the correct phrasal verb: The issue was so delicate that she chose to _____ it altogether.

Correct — C. Two clues decide the blank. The issue was so delicate, which gives a reason for caution, and she did what she chose altogether, that is, completely.

To shy away from something is to avoid it out of nervousness or reluctance. Avoiding a delicate issue completely is exactly that sense → option (c).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  brush aside — Brush aside means to dismiss something as unimportant, the wrong reaction to a delicate issue. It also cannot fill this slot: with a pronoun it splits, 'brush it aside', never 'brush aside it'.
• (b)
  walk into — Walk into means to enter, or to blunder into trouble without seeing it. A delicate issue calls for keeping away, and 'chose to' rules out the unwitting sense.
• (d)
  lean over — Lean over means to bend your body across something. It is a physical movement, with no sense of avoiding or handling an issue.

Shy away from means to avoid something because you are nervous, unwilling or afraid: to shy away from a question, from responsibility, from a fight.

It is a three-part phrasal verb, and its object comes after from: shy away from it.

Brush aside works differently. Its particle, aside, is an adverb, and with an adverb particle a pronoun object goes between verb and particle: brush it aside, turn it off.

Key facts

• Shy away from: to avoid something out of nervousness or reluctance.
• In a transitive phrasal verb with an adverb particle, a pronoun object goes between the parts: brush it aside, not brush aside it.
• Brush aside means to dismiss something as unimportant.
• So + adjective + that introduces a result: so delicate that she avoided it.

Common traps

• Picking brush aside on meaning alone, without trying it against the pronoun it after the blank
• Ignoring so delicate, which gives the reason for her choice and points to caution

No directly related past PYQ was found.