Register: informal-to-neutral, common in both spoken meetings and written summaries
0 / 10 completed
1 / 10
A manager interrupts a long status update: "Let's ___ — is the release blocked or not?" Which phrase best signals skipping preamble to get straight to the important point?
Cut to the chase is a fixed idiom meaning "skip the unnecessary details and get to the main point." It requires the preposition "to" and the definite article "the." "Cut to the chasing" wrongly uses a gerund, "cut the chase to" scrambles the word order, and "cut into the chase" uses the wrong preposition.
2 / 10
Which sentence uses "cut to the chase" correctly?
"I'll cut to the chase: the migration failed, and we need to roll back right now" correctly skips preamble to deliver the essential, often urgent, information immediately. It cannot introduce a bare future plan, a polite instruction, or a scheduled future event, since those don't involve cutting through preceding detail.
3 / 10
Fill the blank: "There's a lot of context here, but let me ___ : the feature is ready, the tests are green, and we can ship today."
Cut to the chase has a fixed word order: "cut" + "to" + "the" + "chase." The other options scramble this into invalid, meaningless sequences (note option D also drops the required "to" placement after the verb).
4 / 10
Which pair correctly distinguishes "cut to the chase" from "beat around the bush"?
"Let's cut to the chase: is this feature done or not?" gets straight to the essential question. "Stop beating around the bush and just tell me if it's done" criticizes someone for avoiding that same direct question. They point in opposite directions.
5 / 10
A standup update reads: "I could walk through every step I tried, but ___ : the root cause was a missing environment variable." Which best completes the sentence?
Cut to the chase is the correct, fixed form. The other options scramble the required word order into invalid phrases.
6 / 10
Which sentence contains an error in the use of "cut to the chase"?
"Cut to the chase that we discussed at the offsite, the server rebooted overnight" incorrectly attaches a relative clause and applies the phrase to a neutral event with no preceding preamble being skipped. "Cut to the chase" needs context implying detail is being bypassed to reach the main point. The other three sentences use it correctly.
7 / 10
Choose the sentence where "cut to the chase" is best replaced by "get straight to the point" without changing the meaning.
"I'll get straight to the point: we're over budget, and something has to give — either scope or timeline" preserves the meaning exactly. The other options misuse the phrase as an urgency marker, an unrelated possessive-sounding construction, or a pairing with a specific future date.
8 / 10
A design doc states: "There are several reasons we considered switching databases, but to ___ , read latency was the deciding factor." Which best fits?
Cut to the chase is the correct, standard form after "to" — the definite article "the" is required. Option A wrongly uses the indefinite article. Option B wrongly drops "the." Option D wrongly uses a gerund after the infinitive marker "to."
9 / 10
Which register note about "cut to the chase" is accurate?
"Cut to the chase" works equally well in a spoken meeting ("Let's cut to the chase") and a written summary ("To cut to the chase, the fix is a one-line config change"). It always signals skipping preamble to reach the essential point.
10 / 10
Which sentence best demonstrates "cut to the chase" skipping preamble to deliver the essential point?
"I could walk through the whole investigation, but to cut to the chase: it was a DNS misconfiguration, and it's already fixed" is the textbook use: skipping detail to deliver the essential conclusion. The other options misuse the phrase as a command intensifier, insert it awkwardly mid-clause, or pair it incorrectly with a specific future date.