Phrasal verb CUT

Study the phrasal verbs. Lead-in.

Puzzle:

Somebody has cut down the trees.

My house is cut off now that there is a lot more water in the lake.

How can I come across the lawn and get home if the boat is on the other side?

The dietician is cutting out a list of recommendations from a magazine:

“If you want to get healthier, you should:

cut down on sugar, sweets, junk food;
cut up vegetables and fruits into salads and eat them with every meal.”

Be healthy!

More phrasal verbs with CUT …

cut across	go across a place and not around it, making your trip shorter and saving your time: Let’s cut across the field, it will be faster.
cut down	make a tree fall by sawing it: The sawmill cuts
cut down	reduce: “Please, cut your essay down to 3 paragraphs,” the teacher asked.
cut down on = cut back on	reduce the intake of sth: Doctors advise to cut down on fatty foods and sugary beverages.
cut in(to)	interrupt sb who is talking by saying sth: It’s impolite to cut in when people are talking.
cut off	get disconnected when talking on the phone: While chatting to my bestie, suddenly I got cut off.
	not provide the supply of sth any more: He didn’t pay the bills, so his gas supply was cut off.
	isolate: Their house is often cut off in the winter.
cut out	remove from (a newspaper): I took a pair of scissors and cut out the article from the magazine.
cut out	exclude (sth from a diet or sb from your life): “You must cut out sugar from your diet,” the dietician said seriously to his patient.
be cut out for/ be cut out to be	be “created” for a profession: She’s such a creative person, she’s cut out for advertising.
cut up	cut into smaller pieces: The chef skillfully cut up the vegetables for the stew.

Practice

Exercise 1

Match

1 / 5

Match

cut off

cut down

2 / 5

Match

cut in (to)

cut out

cut down

3 / 5

Match

cut across

cut off

cut out

4 / 5

Match

cut off

cut down on

cut up

5 / 5

Match

be cut out for

cut back on

Your score is

Exercise 2

Fill in the gaps.

1 / 8

The village was cut from the rest of the world because of the floods.

2 / 8

“You should cut sugar if you want to lose weight,” the dietician recommended.

3 / 8

Some people like to cut articles from newspapers and keep them in a folder.

4 / 8

Three peasants decided to cut the corn field to arrive at the edge of the forest by the sunrise.

5 / 8

My neighbour Mary is cut to be a teacher – she loves children and is good at explaining things.

6 / 8

I want fruit salad for lunch, will you please cut these fruits ?

7 / 8

Marion made up her mind to cut her ex-husband her life completely.

8 / 8

“I am sorry to cut your conversation, do you have a cigarette lighter?”

Your score is

Exercise 3

Exercise 4

Write the meanings of the phrasal verbs.

1 / 10

"Sorry for cutting in, but do you have a cigarette lighter?"

2 / 10

Lina wasn't hungry, so she just cut up the vegetables for a light supper.

3 / 10

The trees in her garden were infected with a fungal disease, so she had to cut them down.

4 / 10

As many teenagers, Tasha liked this actress, so she cut out her photo from the magazine and hung it on the wall.

5 / 10

Simon takes excellent pictures; he's cut out to be a photographer.

6 / 10

Kevin forgot to pay the electricity bill, so it was cut off.

7 / 10

Sarah wrote a five-page letter, but then after having read it twice, she cut it down to two pages.

8 / 10

The doctor recommended cutting down on dairy in order to stop stomachaches.

9 / 10

She spared no effort to cut her ex-husband out of her life.

10 / 10

Every winter their house is cut off from the city because of heavy precipitation.

Your score is

Exercise 5

Replace the verbs in bold with the phrasal verbs. Make other necessary changes.

1 / 10

You should reduce the intake of red meat as it can cause colon cancer.

2 / 10

Their house is isolated from all the other houses of the village in case of a flood or a heavy snowfall.

3 / 10

Let’s remove these pictures from the magazine with scissors for our scrapbook.

4 / 10

What job do you think you are created for?

5 / 10

I got disconnected when I was talking to my friend on the phone.

6 / 10

If people continue destroying rainforests so fast, they’ll have vanished by 2025.

7 / 10

“You must reduce your shopping expenses, or we’ll go broke sooner than you think!” cried Mark.

8 / 10

Lily desperately wanted not to allow her daughter’s father to be present in their life.

9 / 10

It’s impolite to interrupt when somebody is talking.

10 / 10

If you want to make preserved oranges, you should first wash them, then cut them into smaller pieces and add sugar.

Your score is

Exercise 6

Exercise 7

make a tree fall by sawing it;

reduce

1/8

get disconnected when talking on the phone;

not provide the supply of something any more;

isolate

2/8

be “created” for a profession

3/8

reduce the intake of something

4/8

go across a place and not around it, making your trip shorter and saving your time

5/8

remove from (a newspaper);

exclude (something from a diet or somebody from your life)

6/8

cut into smaller pieces

7/8

interrupt somebody who is talking by saying something

8/8

Commit these phrasal verbs to memory!

Start

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Exercise 8*

Make up a 5-sentence story, using the phrasal verbs from the list in any form you need.

Begin your story with “Work is …”.

1 / 1

You can do this task either here or on a piece of paper. Use the prompts below in any order you prefer.

cut down on sweets and pastry – be cut out to be – cut out recipes – cut up fruits and vegetables – cut across the field

P.S. This exercise is not corrected here as there are multiple possible answers. We recommend turning to your teacher for correction if needed.

60 words left

Your score is

The average score is 0%

Exercise 9*

Make up 4 short dialogues (2-3 lines each) on the given topics. Use as many of the phrasal verbs from this block as possible.

Example: A teacher-student situation taking place in class.

Teacher: Rainforests nowadays are being cut down at an alarming rate. We need them as they are the lungs …

Student: Sorry for cutting into your explanation, but what do we call the process of cutting down trees?

Teacher: A good question. We call it deforestation. How can we cut down deforestation?

P.S. This exercise is not corrected here as there are multiple possible answers. We recommend turning to your teacher for correction if needed.

1 / 4

Dialogue 1. A doctor talking to his patient.

60 words left

2 / 4

Dialogue 2. Two citizens complaining about the nasty weather and its disastrous consequences.

60 words left

3 / 4

Dialogue 3. Two women dreaming of losing 20 kilos.

60 words left

4 / 4

Dialogue 4. A man asking the shortest way to the river.

60 words left

Your score is

The average score is 0%