Sentence improvement (phrasal verb with accident) — Choose the standard expression to correct: ‘‘While crossing the highway a five-year-old child was knocked out by a passing car.’’

Given sentence‘‘While crossing the highway a five-year-old child was knocked out by a passing car.’’

Concept/ApproachThe standard phrasal verb for a vehicle striking a pedestrian is ‘‘knock down’’. ‘‘Knock out’’ means ‘‘render unconscious’’ in general, but the idiom with vehicles is ‘‘knock down’’.

Option analysisA: away — ‘‘knock away’’ has a different meaning.B: up — Dialectal in AmE (to impregnate), not applicable here.C: down — Correct collocation: ‘‘was knocked down by a car.’’D: No improvement — Original is not the accepted idiom for traffic accidents.

Final Answerdown