Level 8 Unit 3 -
Uses of the verb "To Pick".
Complete the sentences

Fill in all the gaps with the right form of the verb. Click on the ? button to see how many words are required. Press "Check" to check your answers. Use the "Hint" button to get a free letter if an answer is giving you trouble. Note that you will lose points if you ask for hints!

TO PICK

TO PICK
Alone the word usually means to collect fruit when it is detached from the branch or plant. Mushrooms, cherries, strawberries - they are all picked.

You can also pick a lock (if you are a thief and able to open a lock without the key...)

To choose. If you pick the right horse and put your money on it you can win. fortunately for the bookmakers, most people pick the wrong horses.

To eat off the bone. One shouldn't pick chicken bones in a restaurant, though it's quite nice to do so at home.

(The expression "To pick a bone with someone" means you want to talk over something in detail, the implication being that he is wrong and you are going to put him right.)

When a pickpocket steals your wallet he picks your pocket. Even though he might specialise in handbags and the like, he is still a pickpocket.

TO PICK UP
To collect or recover something or things which are lying on the ground, on the table...
To take something in your hand from wherever it is lying.

You also pick up the children from school when you take them home.
Or you can pick up a colleague on your way to work so that he doesn't have to use his car.

A pick-me-up, by the way is a quick drink intended to give you a little energy - even if it usually does the opposite.

TO PICK ON
To pick on someone is to attack them systematically and, by implication, unjustly. In nature, albino animals are often picked on by their fellows expelled or eventually killed.
It doesn't pay to be different...

In the exercise, type in the verb and preposition, in the correct tense.
Right. See these cards in my hand. I want you one.

Never hitch hikers. It can be dangerous.

We're going to the wood mushrooms.

For goodness sake walk properly. your feet John!

The girl who was robbed tried to the thief from the line up.

Chickens can be cruel to each other. If there's a weak one you can be sure all the others will it.

Ah, Peter. I have a bone with you! You remember that letter you were supposed to post last Friday...?

Steinbecks story "the Grapes of Wrath" is about a family who tried to make a living fruit in California.

Officer! I am sure that man over there is the fellow who my pocket. Look I think he has my wallet in his hand!

The thieves didn't exactly break in. They the lock and opened the door without damaging it.

any wood you see. Then we can light a camp fire.

There weren't any strawberries left in the garden. If there had been, we them and eaten them.

grapes is fun but hard work. Everyone should do it once. Only a fool would do it twice!

When John all his toys, his mother let him go out to play.