～おえる/～おわる

やっとレポートを書き（ ）。
a. おえた b. とまった c. とめた d. やんだ

Yesterday, I talked about ～出（だ）す and ～始（はじ）める both of which mean “to begin to ～” but while ～出す is mainly used for sudden and/or involuntary actions, ～始める is used for volitional actions. Today, I am going to talk about the opposite of ～始める, which is either ～終（お）える or ～終（お）わる and both means “to finish ～.” As is it the opposite of ～始める, ～終える/終わる are used mainly for a volitional action. So the answer to the above question is a. おえた.

この本（ほん）を読（よ）み終（お）えた。
I finished reading this book.

宿題（しゅくだい）をし終（お）えたら、テレビを見てもいいです。
You may watch TV when you finish doing your homework.

ネットフリックスを見（み）終（お）えたら朝（あさ）の一時（いちじ）だった。
When I finished watching Netflix, it was 1 in the morning.

食（た）べ終（お）えたら電話（でんわ）してください。
Please call me when you finish eating.

一通（ひととお）り話（はなし）を聞（き）き終（お）えた。
I have finished hearing the basics of the story.

For those who are wondering, then, what the opposite of ～出す would be, that is ～止（や）む and which is usually used for unintentional actions and/or natural phenomena. In that sense, the following 2 sentences are opposite of each other.

雨がふり始めた。
雨がふり止んだ。

However, the second sentence above is usually shortened as:

雨が止んだ。

I don’t believe ～やむ will be tested in the JLPT N4 exam, so don’t worry about that for now.