Bill and Sam were soon desperate and decided to 18 the little terror.
答案：(B) get rid of
【句型】get rid of 固定片語「擺脫」；hold on to（抓住不放，語意相反）、make fun of（嘲笑）、take advantage of（利用）都不合。
卡住這一題的常常不是選項，而是受詞 the little terror。terror 你背的是「恐怖、驚駭」，看到 the little terror 翻不出來，整句讀不懂，只好硬猜。先把這個字處理掉：劍橋詞典在 terror 底下另收一個非正式用法，指「行為頑劣、難以管教的人（尤指小孩）」，例句就是 My brother is a little terror.（我弟弟是個小魔王。）所以 the little terror 指的就是前面那個 mischievous boy，中文說「那個小麻煩精」。
把這一句和下一句連起來看：Bill and Sam were soon desperate and decided to {18} the little terror. They lowered the price to $1,500.（比爾和山姆很快就束手無策，決定要對這個小麻煩精做某件事。他們把價錢降到 $1,500。）「降價」這個動作就是答案的保證 — 會降價，是因為急著把人脫手，所以空格要填「擺脫、除掉」，也就是 get rid of。反過來用 hold on to 檢驗更清楚：如果綁匪想把人「緊抓不放」，就沒有降價的道理，前後矛盾，直接淘汰。
hold on to（緊抓不放、保留）例 Hold on to your ticket.（票要收好。）語意與本題相反。make fun of（取笑、嘲弄）— 文中被整慘的是綁匪，被取笑的對象方向不對，而且接不上下一句的降價。take advantage of（利用；占……的便宜）例 take advantage of the opportunity（把握機會）。這三個和答案一樣，都是「動詞 + 介副詞 + 介系詞」的三字片語動詞，中間不能拆開，受詞一律擺在最後 — 這一組四個一次背齊最划算。
get rid of（除掉、擺脫）、hold on to（緊抓不放、保留）、make fun of（取笑、嘲弄）、take advantage of（利用；占……的便宜）、be desperate（走投無路的、不顧一切的）、lower the price（降價）、hide sb in a cave（把某人藏在山洞裡）。
Bill and Sam decided to kidnap the son of a banker to compensate for their business loss. They kidnapped the boy and hid him in a cave. They asked for a ransom of $2,000 to return the boy.
16 , their plan quickly got out of control. Their young captive 17 to be a mischievous boy. He viewed the kidnapping as a wonderful camping trip. He demanded that his kidnappers play tiring games with him, such as riding Bill as a horse for nine miles. Bill and Sam were soon desperate and decided to 18 the little terror. They lowered the price to $1,500.
Yet, knowing perfectly well 19 a troublemaker his son was, the father refused to give them any money. 20 , he asked the kidnappers to pay him $250 to take the boy back. To persuade the boy to return home, Bill and Sam had to tell him that his father was taking him bear-hunting. The kidnappers finally handed over the boy and $250 to the banker and fled town as quickly as they could.