Question

Replace the underlined word in the sentence with one of the phrasal verbs given below to convey the same meaning.
He renounced his wealth and became a social worker.
A) gave in
B) gave on
C) gave up
D) gave out

Answer 1

Hint: Read the sentence and understand the meaning properly. One of the given options is a phrasal verb for the underlined word. Find out which option brings out the same meaning to that of the underlined word by eliminating the incorrect options one by one.

Complete answer: Phrasal verbs are two or three words of different grammatical categories which are combined together to form a single unit. For example, it can be a verb + preposition (pick up). The given sentence wants to convey that the subject abandoned their wealth and became a social worker. Let’s go through the options and see which one of them best expresses the meaning of the underlined word :
Option A) gave in - It means to give or hand in something. It is not the right phrasal verb to be used instead of ‘renounced’. ‘He gave in his wealth and became a social worker’ - is an incorrect answer as the phrasal verb ‘gave in’ doesn’t give sense to this sentence and is grammatically incorrect.
Option B) gave on - It means to attack. Hence it is also a wrong option. ‘He gave on his wealth and became a social worker’ - is an incorrect answer as the phrasal verb ‘gave on’ doesn’t give sense to this sentence and is grammatically incorrect.
Option C) gave up - It brings out the right meaning and is the right answer since renounce usually means to surrender, abandon or resign. ‘He gave up his wealth and became a social worker’ - is the correct answer as the phrasal verb ‘gave up’ gives sense to the sentence, brings out the right meaning and is grammatically correct.
Option D) gave out - It means to stop working or stop complaining about something. Hence it is also an incorrect answer. ‘He gave out his wealth and became a social worker’ - is an incorrect answer as the phrasal verb ‘gave out’ doesn’t give sense to this sentence and is grammatically incorrect.
Therefore, option c is the right answer.

Note: Phrasal verbs can be intransitive (i.e. they have no object) or transitive (i.e. they can have an object).