Many English learners concentrate so much on memorizing new words, they often downplay phrasal verbs. This is probably because phrasal verbs look very familiar, even to a beginner. Though they include simple words, adding prepositions give them a totally different meaning. Many of them are impossible to figure out, It is recommended to look at phrasal verbs as separate dictionary items rather than single verb variations. Memorizing the text below will help you to learn a whole lot of phrasal verbs. All of them are highlighted, some of them are highlighted with a different color. This is to separate them if one phrasal verb goes right after the other. The text will be updated with new phrasal verbs from time to time. So come back again!
John and Julia
At first they were getting along very well. Soon yoga began taking up all his free time. At first she tried to check up on him with the help of his friends. But, they were looking out for him and stood up for him. They were backing him up on everything he was up to and didn’t want to give him away to her. They were surely keeping something from her! Actually, they thought she was just picking on him. She couldn’t figure out how to get through to him and was feeling down. He would never even call her back. His new hobby took over his life completely. She gave in to his obsession and never told him off. She was going through this on her own, trying to cheer herself up. They were still getting on fine and she gave way to his passion. She hoped things would sort themselves out and never brought this up to him.
She could not put up any longer with him showing up home late every night and ran out of patience. She checked out almost every TV show to make it through evenings, sometimes even staying up all night and nodding off on the couch. Late at night, when she would drift off, he would quietly slide in to their house. She ended up jumping to the conclusion that she could not carry on like that and their relationship was about to break off. She faced up to the decision to give up and get away. Holding on was not an option. She began looking for something better and went ahead and broke up with him. Keeping away from him was very liberating and she really fell into the need to wind down and kick back. “I have to cross his name off my list” – she thought. ”Literally, cut him out of my life. He is not getting away with it this time! I am not getting back until I am through with it and until I am over him. I am not going out with him again! I just handed him in my resignation, I want to get my life back! If I keep up with respecting myself, I am going to break away. I need to look after myself first!”
She dressed up, got in a taxi and then got on a plane to Mexico. “Buckle up and hold onto your hat!” –the driver said to her before they took off.
They asked her to fill out the immigration form before she got off the plane. She didn’t check in to the hotel at first. Instead, she got on a train to the beach. While being bounced around on the train, she ran across a yoga class voucher that was given away. She looked over it briefly, then tore it up and threw it away. “Get rid of your old life properly”, –she thought. She decided to get off the train and get on a bus instead, hoping not to come across anything that would bring up the old memories. She was leaning into a new version of herself, laid back and calmed down. The old life had to come apart, there was no getting back to being wound up again. There was no backing out living through this phase, nor was there going back or hiding away from living up to her new life. She got into the idea of not backing away. The old relationship had to blow over. “I have grown out of him and will grow into something better! Get your priorities straight!” — she was picking up to the new idea of herself.
Three men asked her out for a cup of matcha, but she didn’t long for falling for every new opportunity she stumbled upon. She didn’t buy into it and it just didn’t add up to her: Where does matcha even come from? Is the usual coffee date dying down? Why do they even come up with this stuff? It is better to bottle up a taste like that or, better to do away with it completely — she thought after she brushed off another matcha offer that came about.
“I have to check it out myself first”. To catch on with what was going on, she had to crack down on her ignorance and catch up with those guys. “Why do they keep on doing this? There must be a reason why they are all not backing down. All three promised to check back another time. They must really feel up to having it with me, if they keep going after it! I have to look into it. Maybe I should ask one of them to fill me in on the subject. Hang on, maybe they just want to save up money not buying coffee? Or, perhaps, they are just showing off while trying to chat me up? There is no way they can pull this off! Or are they just trying to cut down on caffeine? I know I can’t do without my cup of coffee. I am not cutting back on it! It is like going against myself! I would have dropped out of college had I not had my coffee every morning! Even filling up my coffee cup would already wake me up. I would rather eat out with one of them, than settle for a cup of strange tea! And why didn’t I get this across to them in the first place?” Switching from coffee to something else sounded like stepping down from a manager role to a cubicle worker. “Should I ask around if any of my friends came across matcha?” She called around to a few of her friends. She even called on her childhood friend, Lisa. Lisa said that she came down with the flu and was mixed up and not thinking straight. She said that once she almost passed out trying to get up. So she wasn’t even trying to get out of bed. She promised to call her up after she gets over it. They decided to get together some day, maybe drop by some place for a coffee. She hadn’t laid eyes on Lisa since her wedding, when her father gave her away. Now, they have almost grown apart. “Can you put me through to John?” — Lisa said. “Our relationship broke us apart. It was yoga that made us part, not death after all. Hang in there and look out for trouble! We should team up again someday! Why don’t you come over once you in town?” — she said to Lisa and hung up. It was hard to hold herself back from talking. She was looking forward to seeing Lisa, once she gets her own life together.
John and Julia wanted to work it out and get over this. To do the relationship over and take up where they left off, starting over their lives anew. They got on with it very well not wanting to let each other down. They had a lot to catch up. He made up with her and they got back together. Things were working out very well. Something new came up though, and brought about an unexpected change. They took on new students to the class and he fell for someone else. Once she ran into them while she was going up the stairs and they were walking down. To get away with it he said that what she came up with was false and she had made it all up. Soon after she found out, he called his new relationship off and made it turn out fine in the end.
