Choosing a pet: phrasal verbs (B2)

Shelters report the same pattern every January: animals adopted as gifts in December are returned within weeks. The reasons are rarely cruelty; they are arithmetic. A medium-sized dog needs two walks a day for twelve to fifteen years, and veterinary bills for an ageing animal can exceed a month's salary. Rescue organisations therefore ask applicants to ___ the real cost in money, time and housing before they visit the kennels at all, and some now refuse same-day adoptions on principle. Matching matters as much as willingness: a working sheepdog in a small flat becomes destructive, not because it is badly behaved, but because it was bred to solve problems all day. The most useful question is not which animal you like, but which animal your life can honestly support.

Fonte: English for ALL (texto original).

Assinale a alternativa que completa corretamente a lacuna do texto.

A) weigh down
B) weigh in
C) weigh up
D) weigh on
E) weigh out

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Resposta correta: C

"Weigh up" significa avaliar cuidadosamente prós e contras antes de decidir, sentido exigido pelo contexto de adoção responsável. "Weigh down" quer dizer sobrecarregar alguém ou algo, e teria como objeto a pessoa, não o custo a ser considerado. "Weigh on" descreve uma preocupação que pesa sobre alguém e é intransitivo nesse uso, incompatível com o objeto direto da frase. "Weigh in" refere-se a pesar-se antes de uma competição ou a intervir num debate, e "weigh out" significa medir uma quantidade em uma balança.

Choosing a pet: phrasal verbs (B2)

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