By Robby
If you are new here please read this first.
Current Goal: Learn 50 American Phrases in 25 Days!
Currently I’m reading the last book in GONE series, and here’s a sentence I came across yesterday: “See what food we can ROUND UP!”
The situation in the book was the following: a kids settlement near a lake had been attacked by a monster of extraordinary powers, and half of all humans got massacred (quite grisly for a teenage fiction, isn’t it?). When the monster was fended off by one of the human mutants (you must be thinking now – “What kind of books are you reading, Robby?!”), the girl in charge started organizing their retreat to the town.
Quite obviously, when almost everything you own is destroyed, first you have to see what supplies you’re left with, so that’s when this phrase “See what we can ROUND UP” comes in really handy!
The funny thing is, I knew the phrasal verb TO ROUND UP in quite a different context. It’s a mathematical term and it’s used when rounding up figures. Let’s say, for example, if you’re asked to round up the number 27, you get 30.
You can also round figures down, in which case 27 becomes 25 – and I’m sure everyone having even attended a primary school is familiar with this concept!
Today’s video, however, isn’t about rounding figures up or down.
It’s about using the American phrasal verb TO ROUND UP in a much different context, namely – when rounding up…
- food supplies;
- people;
- animals or pets;
- just about any other items you might need for a specific reason!
Imagine a small American town sheriff shouting orders to his marshals in a TV program: “I want you to ROUND UP every known thief in this town, I want to question them all!”
It’s just something I just came up with in order to illustrate usage of the phrasal verb TO ROUND UP; but believe me – you don’t have to be a cop to round something up.
There are situations in everybody’s life when we need to SEE WHAT WE CAN ROUND UP, and if you want to find out more about it – please watch the video above!
Chat soon,
Robby
P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!
