Advanced Writing with English in Use

B Phrasalverbs andsingle-wordverb s

Killinga p arrot(a truestory)
a Mr Lamprey and Mr Pea r are nei ghbour s.Mr Pear
and his wifekeep parrots. The noisemadebythe
parrots has finally made Mr Lampreyso angrytha t he
has brokendownthe fence between their t wogardens
and slrangledone of the parrots.You are the lawyer
defendingMr Lamprey, who isbeing sued by Mr Pear for
the damage done to his property. The following is how
your clientdescribesthe events to you.

Formalandinformal

(8) a co m pla int. T he sw itc hboard

(9 ) himto the Soc ia l Ser vice s De partment,

w here aw o ma n promisedto (1 0 ) the matterthe

fo tto w ing wee k. The woma n ne ve r(II). A noth er

time was(12) , but again thewo man fa iled to

ap pear. In fact. this initial visit was conti n ua lly

( 13) untils ix months late r, whe na cou nc il offi-

ce r finatt y(14 ). A fte ra b rie f ins pectio n,the offi-

cer sa id he would (15 ) th e case to the

Env ironmental Heal thDepart ment .'

b Now ,reverse the process. The rest of the story is in

your words, Read it, then complete Mr Lamprey's more

informalversion by filling each gap with a phrasal verb

selected from the list below, or with the verbget.

' T he pr o spectofanothers ixmo nthswa itingange redm y

c lie n t. He to ld th e council officer he was nolo naeo r

prepar ed toto le rateth e s it uat io n;m o r eo ve r. he felt it

was th e C o uncil ' sjob torestor epe ace andq u ie ttothe

neighbourhood .Nevertheless, in the twe lvemon ths th at

haveelapseds incethe officer ca me, the Co u ncil hasta ken

no furthe raction.

' M atte rsdet erioratedrecentlyw hen Mr Pear ' s wife

Doloresenteredthe quarrel .M y clienthadpre vious ly

enjoyed good relationsw ithM rs Pear,b u tallgoo dwill

endedw he nittran sp iredthat Mrs Pear had beenp honi ng

the police,claim in gthatthe Lampre ys hadthr eat enedto

kiltthe birds.'

T his hasbeen goingo n forthreeyears, eversin cethe Pears

came alon ga ndbroughtthei r infe rnal par rots into th e

nei ghbourho od .T he noiseofthe bird sgot 011 my nerves

fro m the ve ry s ta rtso I d id use to com pla in a bit.

Ifinallyg al'e"I'hop eofg ettin guse d to it w he n in the

middleofthenig ht. I heardso meone calli ng out my name.

It was a trick he'dputo neo f his parrots up to.just towind

melip!Inthe morning I hadit outw ith him, bu the hadthe

c heekto s ay that thebirdw a sn ' ts ayin g m yname ata ll,

a n dit wa sn'this fa u ltif the bird's lo ve catl so u nded a bit

like" He rbe rt".

' I didn'tkno w wha t to do. Italkedit ol'erw ith

my mates at work , whos uggestedIget intouc h withthe

CityC o unci landmaybeputina forma lcom p la int.SoI

ran gthe m up an d theyputme through to the Soc ial

Services. The woma n there sa idshe' d come andcheck out

the parrots the ne xtweek .butsheneverturnedup.So we

fixedli panoth e rtime .a n ds he sto odme up again. T hey

kepto nputtingit<fftitlone d ay,outofth e blu e , a blok e

sho wed"I'.He le ft afte r fiveminutes, s ay ing he'dpassthe

matterOilto the Env iro nme ntal Healt h Department. ' makeout

goby

get o n with

tu rnout

b rin g hack

putupwit h

fall out

jo inin

get

Now you arespeaking in court,before ajudge andjury.
Notethat youraccountappears moreconciseandless
emotive than your client's.Fill theblanks byreplacingIhe
phrasal verbs and phrases withgetin the original(in
italics)with a single-wordverb selectedfrom thelist
below. Put Ihe verb into the appropriatetense.

lodge irritate despair a rrive
con tact refer postpone visit
become discuss p rovoke investigate
connect arrange come

' Eve rs inceth e Pe ars(I) in the neighbourho od
thr ee ye a rs ago m y clie nt , Mr Lam prey, ha s been
(2) b y the bird s .Hefi natty(3 ) of
(4) accustomedto the noisethe nig htthat one o f
the bird s sta rted tocatt o ut his nam e.MrPear wouldap pear to
have taug htthe birdto saythename" He rbe rt" w iththe so le
intentiono f (5 ) my cl ient.
' Hav ing (6 ) the p robl em with his co tteag ues ,
my clie nt(7) th e C ityCou nci lw itha viewto

'\\'ett I do n 't mindte lling you that I(0 _

p retty angry. Itoldh imthatifhe tho ught Iwasgoingto

(2) ano thersixmont hsofheingmessedabou tbv

th e CityCouncil a n d tau nt e dhyscreamingparrotsheha~I

a no ther th in k coming. I to ld him it was his job to

(3) pe ace audq uietto theneighhourhood.\\'e ll,

12 mo n th shave(4) nowan dthecouncil hasn't

(5) an)th ingdoneahoutit.

' Re cen t ly,th in g s(6) worsewhen .\IrsPe a r

(7) , We usedto(8) he rO K,hutthen

w e (9) when it (10 ) shewas theone

thatkep tpho u ing the police aho u t us, ( I I) we

hadth reateue d to,; 11 theh ir ds...'

c Look backat the connecting wordsin boldin the

boxed partsof thestory (beginningwith'soI diduse to

complain').What is the difference between the

connecting word s in the formal speech and thosein the

informal spoken English?

Writing sub-skills • 1 5