Fill in the blanks with suitable phrasal verbs in the below sentence. Maya always felt that people her because of her unconventio…

Question

Fill in the blanks with suitable phrasal verbs in the below sentence.

Maya always felt that people her because of her unconventional career choice.

1. A. look down upon (Correct answer)
2. B. fall through
3. C. fall back on
4. D. look down

Correct Answer

Option A — look down upon

Detailed Solution & Explanation

The correct answer is look down upon.

Key Points

• Look down upon means to regard someone as inferior or treat them with contempt, which fits the reaction to an unconventional career.
• The idiom requires the preposition upon (or *on*) to take an object — look down alone is incomplete here.
• Fall through means to fail to happen, and fall back on means to resort to something in reserve.
• Its opposite is look up to, meaning to admire.

Additional Information

• The direct opposite is look up to, meaning to admire or respect someone — the two are often tested as a pair.
• The wider *look* family is worth learning together: look after (care for), look into (investigate), look for (search), look over (examine quickly), look out (be careful) and look forward to (anticipate with pleasure).
• Note that look down upon always needs its preposition; *look down* alone simply means to direct the eyes downward.