If you ‘lie down’ you go for a rest on a bed or a sofa.
* You look exhausted. Lie down for a while.
* I lie down for ten minutes after lunch every day.
If you ‘slow down’, you go less quickly than before.
* As I have got older, I seem to have slowed down and to be able to get through less work.
* Production has slowed down compared with last year.
If you ‘calm down’, you stop being angry or excited.
* He got very angry at first but laughed about it when he had calmed down a bit.
* You need to calm down. You are much too emotional.
If someone or something needs to ‘cool down’, they are too hot.
* I am going to take a shower to cool myself down a bit.
* The coffee is too hot to drink. Let it cool down a bit.
If you ‘cut down’ something, it can mean that you reduce the number.
* We need to cut down our workforce by 500 people.
* You should cut down the number of cigarettes you smoke.
If an argument ‘falls down’, it is very weak.
* Your argument falls down when you look at the inflation rate.
* The argument falls down when you take costs into account.
If you ‘mark down’ a price, you reduce it.
* The shirts have been marked down by 50%.
* Prices have been marked down by 10% across the board.
If things ‘quieten down’ , they become less noisy.
* I am not going to speak until you all quieten down a bit.
* It was very hectic earlier but things have quietened down now.
If you ‘tear something down’, you pull it with force from a wall or a notice board.
* He tore down the poster that the union had put up.
* Somebody has torn down the safety notice I put up.
If you ‘tone down’ something, you make it less extreme.
* You need to tone down the language in your letter. It is too hostile.
* We need to tone down the colors on the website. They are too bright.
Exercises:
http://www.business-english.com/downphrasals1/exercise1.swf
http://www.business-english.com/downphrasals1/exercise2.swf
http://www.business-english.com/downphrasals1/exercise3.swf
http://www.business-english.com/downphrasals1/exercise4.swf
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