to an English speaker, “起来”means "to". It is a little tall to look. 看起来有点高

起来 is considered a directional complement, sadly it is one of those grammar points that defies explanation really. The best way for then to grasp it, is to just practice using it.

It's similar to our "up", in some cases (i.e., when something "comes up", to "call up", etc) , in the sense that "up" is not necessary but adds some context/feeling... unfortunately your examples probably dont have exact counterparts, i think 聽起來 would be "from the sound of it", or "upon hearing it", 想起來 " come to think of it", maybe think of it as "the thought arises", or "the thought comes up" ? this is how I understand it, does this help?

It's just like the word like.lol. It looks like, it sounds like... Hopefully this is helping.

Easy, can be translated to looks like, sounds like. Don't translate 起来only, coz in Chinese it means get up or stand up or whatever up. U can only use it with the verb看, to make a new word看起来， looks like or it means different again. So for Sth qi lai, just translate to looks like, sounds like etc, its one word, don't separate them and translate. Hope it helps:)