Select the most appropriate phrasal verb to fill in the blank. The principal asked the students to _________ their homes immediately.
head for
Read what follows the blank. The destination ‘their homes’ comes immediately after it, so the phrasal verb must be one that takes a place as its object directly.
Head for means to move in the direction of a particular place. ‘The principal asked the students to head for their homes immediately’ reads naturally.
Why the others fail — each is a real phrasal verb with a different meaning or a different grammar:
Head off — to intercept someone and stop them going further, or to forestall a problem ('head off a crisis'). Wrong sense entirely.
Head up — to lead or be in charge of a group or project ('she heads up the team'). Nothing to do with going somewhere.
Head out — simply to set off or leave, and it is used without an object. One heads out for a place, so it cannot stand directly before ‘their homes’. This is the closest wrong answer, and grammar rather than meaning rules it out.
Takeaway: with phrasal verbs, check whether the verb can take the object that follows. That test often settles the question before meaning is weighed.
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