Choose the most appropriate option to fill the blank in the given sentence. Radium rays that can damage the eyes.

Question

Choose the most appropriate option to fill the blank in the given sentence. Radium rays that can damage the eyes.

1. A. gives away
2. B. gives over
3. C. gives off (Correct answer)
4. D. gives up

Correct Answer

Option C — gives off

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is gives off.

Key Points

• Give off means to emit — to send out light, heat, radiation or a smell. Radium emitting rays is precisely this sense.
• The alternatives mean something else entirely:
  • give away — to donate, or to reveal a secret
  • give over — to hand across, or to stop doing something
  • give up — to surrender or abandon

Additional Information

• Phrasal verbs built on *give*: give in (yield), give out (distribute, or stop functioning), give back (return), give away, give up, give off.
• Note the fine distinction between give off (emit) and give out (distribute, or fail) — "the heater gave off warmth" against "the heater gave out in winter".
• Radium was discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898 and is intensely radioactive, which is the factual basis of the sentence.
• Phrasal verbs must be learnt as whole units, since the particle changes the meaning completely and cannot be reasoned out from the base verb.