Question

Choose the correct word/phrase to complete the sentence.

The police have decided to ___________ all illegal construction work around the lake.

a)Clamp down
b)Come forward
c)Do without
d)Got back at

Answer 1

Hint: In everyday speech, a phrase is any group of words, often carrying a special idiomatic meaning, and(in this sense) is synonymous with expression.

Complete answer:

In linguistic analysis, a phrase is a group of words that function as a constituent in the syntax of a sentence. In the given sentence, "The police have decided to _____ all illegal construction work around the lake", we have to find a phrase which matches the syntax of this sentence and is also logically, and grammatically correct. We'll start by analyzing each option and eliminating the ones not needed.
Option 'a' is "Clampdown", which means, to suppress or prevent something in an oppressive manner. This may go with the sentence as the police will "suppress or prevent" the construction work around the lake.
Option 'b' is "Come forward", which means to volunteer oneself for a task to give evidence about a crime". This cannot be correct because the police will not "volunteer itself for a crime".
Option 'c' is "Do without", which means that you can survive/continue without having any particular thing. This also cannot go with the given sentence.
Option 'd' is "Got back at", which means, to do something to upset someone, after they have upset you. The police will not "upset the construction word".
After looking at all the given options, option a, the phrase, "Clampdown" would be logically and grammatically correct, for the given sentence. Hence, the answer is the option a, clamp down. The sentence would be, "The police have decided to clamp down all illegal construction work around the lake."

Note: A phrase typically appears within a clause, but it is possible also for a phrase to be a clause.