In the sentence 'Arun decided to face the music after making the mistake',…

Concept: An idiom is a fixed multi-word expression whose meaning is settled by convention, not by adding up the literal senses of its words. In a 'replace the idiom' task the substitute must reproduce the idiom's conventional figurative sense; matching its literal imagery is the standard trap.

Method

1. Recover the idiom's dictionary sense on its own, before looking at the options.

2. Read the situational cue in the sentence: who acts, and after what.

3. Substitute each candidate into the sentence and keep the one that preserves both the sense and the cue.

Application: Standard dictionaries record 'face the music' as 'to accept and deal with the criticism, punishment or unpleasant results that follow something one has done'. The sentence supplies the matching cue: Arun acts 'after making the mistake', so the idiom describes his decision to meet the unpleasant results of that mistake head-on instead of dodging them. Substituting gives 'Arun decided to confront the consequences after making the mistake' — the same meaning, in plain words.

Contrast with the near-misses

• 'avoid all responsibility' reverses the idiom's direction: the idiom has the doer moving towards the outcome, not stepping away from accountability for it.

• 'escape the situation' also moves away — it describes leaving the circumstances behind, whereas the idiom keeps the doer present for them.

• 'start celebrating' carries a festive, positive sense, while the results the idiom refers to are unwelcome ones.

Cross-check: The idiom's own imagery points the same way: the performer stands before the orchestra and the audience's verdict rather than walking off stage — facing, not fleeing. So the phrase that conveys a similar meaning is 'confront the consequences'.