I recently came across a question on our sister site, English Language Learners, which was asking about a question the OP had seen in some sort of language test which asked which word should be used to fill in the gap in this sentence (slightly abbreviated for brevity here):

> The heightened alert ____ an emergency meeting with flu experts 
in Geneva

The expected answer was _followed_:

> The heightened alert followed an emergency meeting with flu experts 
in Geneva

Somehow, it doesn't sit right with me that a _heightened alert_ can _follow_ a meeting. I would be fine with a rephrasing like:

> Following the meeting, the country was placed on high alert.


Or, closer to the original:

> The heightened alert was the result of an emergency meeting with flu experts 
in Geneva

But, for some reason, I am not happy with the idea that _an alert followed_ an event. I think I am missing another noun there as I would be OK with *the* announcement *of the heightened alert followed...* It's the alert itself that I feel cannot _follow_ a meeting.

Do I have a leg to stand on here? Is there something like the [_licensing_ of complements][1] that verbs do perhaps? Or is this just my own personal hangup and there is nothing awkward about the phrase at all?

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  [1]: https://english.stackexchange.com/a/102038/25030