by Alan Townend25. Phrasal verb look or «Look out!»
This story contains a lot of combinations with the phrasal verb look.
Do you know the meaning of all of them? Read the story and then
look at the explanations below to check your knowledge.
«Look Out!»
If you happen to report to the authorities you've seen a U.F.O
(Unidentified Flying Object), very often you are looked on as if you're
someone who needs looking after. In other words they don't believe
you. People are usually reluctant to believe the extraordinary. You
happen to have a room in a hotel looking on to the lake in Scotland
where there's supposed to be a monster and you're just looking out
of the window and there is the monster. You're looking at it now. You
point at it and tell everyone to look out of the window because
you've seen it. What do they do? They look away. They've heard it all
before. I suppose it's not surprising because whenever you look at
photographs of so-called monsters and beasts, they're never very
clear. People sometimes look into the matter but there never seems
to be any proof. Whenever I read in the newspaper about someone
who has allegedly had a mystical or strange encounter with a person
or thing and is looking for support or is looking forward to finding
someone who will accept their story, I look back to a time some
years ago when something similar happened to me.
At the time I was living in a house which had a small alley at the
side. When you walked down the path you passed a window in the
house next door and you tried to look ahead of you to avoid looking
through the window and seeing what was going on. This house had
been empty for some time but now seemed to be occupied. One
night as the light was on in the room I couldn't resist looking through
the window and saw a very short woman waving at me. She opened
the window, introduced herself and invited me to look in on her one
day soon. I looked her up and down because she seemed so small
and spoke in a strange cracked voice. I forgot all about the invitation
when one morning in the high street I noticed a woman seeming to
come towards me. I took no notice because I assumed she was
about to speak to the person next to me. I obviously didn't know
her. To my surprise she addressed her remarks to me: «'I've been
looking out for you. You looked right through me as though I wasn't
there.» Several shoppers round about looked on wondering what was
happening. «We spoke through the window — I'm from next door.» I
apologized, agreed to come round the following afternoon and said I
was looking forward to meeting the rest of the family. I looked round
to take a closer look at the woman but there was no sign of her. The
reason why I wanted to look her over again was that she seemed to
be twice the height. The face was the same and the voice. My
imagination was telling me that possibly she was a witch.
Although I was a little apprehensive about the visit, I had agreed to
look her up and duly called the next day. As I looked about the hall, I
noticed signs of the zodiac cut into the floor and a large broom
leaning in the corner. «The rest of the family» I had referred to in