If I don’t know the meaning of a word, I <u>look it after</u> in the dictionary.
- (a)look it out
- (b)look it for
- (c)look it up
- (d)No improvement
Correct — C, look it up. 'Look up' is the phrasal verb for finding a piece of information in a reference book, and because it is separable a pronoun object must sit between the two parts — 'I look it up in the dictionary.'
- (a)look it out — 'Look out' means to be careful or to hunt out something you already own; it is not the verb used for consulting a dictionary.
- (b)look it for — 'Look for' means to search for something, and it is inseparable, so the object can never be placed between 'look' and 'for'.
- (d)No improvement — 'Look after' means to take care of somebody or something, which makes no sense with a word and a dictionary.
A phrasal-verb item testing both the right particle and the placement of a pronoun object with a separable phrasal verb.
- A separable phrasal verb must take a pronoun object between the verb and the particle, as in 'switch it off'.
- 'Look up', 'look after', 'look for', 'look into' and 'look out' each carry a completely different meaning.
- Choosing a particle that fits the rhythm of the sentence rather than its meaning.
Asked as a sentence-improvement item that swaps one particle of a phrasal verb for another.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which option best improves the underlined part — Please <u>look after</u> the train timings on the website.
- (a)look up
- (b)look out
- (c)look for
- (d)No improvement
Answer(a) look up — you look up information in a source.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which option best improves the underlined part — She agreed to <u>look for</u> my children while I was away.
- (a)look after
- (b)look up
- (c)look into
- (d)No improvement
Answer(a) look after — 'look after' means to take care of.