Example sentences of "it [was/were] [art] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The sleight of hand had not been performed to show off ; he had done it in a matter-of-fact way , as though it were no more unusual than scratching his ear . |
| 2 | Picking up the axe as though it were no heavier than a bread-knife , Jos indicated the unsplit wood . |
| 3 | By now few proposals could be judged on their merits , only according to which national group put them forward ( or rather , each proposal was identified as if it were no more than the product of a national group ) . |
| 4 | Most of the passengers persevered to the end and looked as though it were no torture . |
| 5 | Nor would the view serve any purpose , including the purpose for which it was devised , if it were no more than the idea that particular episodes of consciousness-say desiring-can be identified by their causal roles , where such identification does not give us their nature , or all of their nature . |
| 6 | Out across the water , the end of the lake had not yet emerged from the mist , and the mountains above it were no more than a delicate shadow of grey against a deep grey sky . |
| 7 | But to press into service , as though it were no more than a compendium of useful organs , the body of a servant , a friend — and a friend , at that , who died for a crime attributable to one 's own negligence — well , this moral madness placed him beyond human consideration . |
| 8 | The urban merchants of Boston and other eastern ports who grew rich from it were no less avid in their conspicuous consumption of English goods . |
| 9 | So it were no good fighting against them I mean they I used to let them please theirself you know , and er just because they were quite happy to go along that way . |
| 10 | and the last time he said take it away for a week and see if it 's any better , so he took it away and it were no better so he took it down to Paul and somebody from come and had a look at it and said it 's injector problems |
| 11 | ‘ You tend to treat life as if it were a game of cricket , for one thing . ’ |
| 12 | She put her bag with the story on the passenger seat and drove as if it were a newborn baby . |
| 13 | Although the majority of scientists tend to be a little coy about metaphysical matters in their professional publications , they are often less so outside when writing elsewhere , being prone to describe the framework of presuppositions about perception within which they conduct their investigations as if it were a discovery in its own right and that ‘ discovery ’ an explanation of perception . |
| 14 | Noting in passing how conclusively the ‘ frigifaire paten ’ rules out any notion of a translation of propertius ( unless it were a translation in the sense of a raucous travesty or ‘ put-down ’ — and indeed some academic latinists did misconceive Pound 's poem in that way ) , some early readers were understandably disconcerted by the inversions of conversational or prosaic word-order — ‘ Happy who ’ , ‘ Stands genius ’ — especially from a poet who some years before had seemed to polemicize for just that rule about word-order which he here flouted . |
| 15 | As the diesel train came in and people were already picking up suitcases from the platform Moran turned and kissed her as if it were a last good night to all the nights she had come to him . |
| 16 | At the same time the wife 's role was to serve , and this modest withdrawal was as it were a part of the service . |
| 17 | She stared into her coffee as though it were a pool reflecting the past . |
| 18 | Frau Nordern took the phone again , bellowed ‘ Karl ! ’ several decibels louder than Omi , shook the phone as if it were a recalcitrant child , listened again , then put it down . |
| 19 | HERR NORDERN would have recognised the scene inside the Station as if it were a replay of a film , or a remake , rather : the shady characters and the drunks , and the badinage reflecting a curious bonhomie between the Duty Officer and the offenders , although the cast was different and , it being later , the Station was busier ; the offenders looking more offensive and the policemen more policeman-like , bigger , harder , and , in all senses of the word , more arresting — although , big and hard though they were , two of them , bundling out an unfortunate to a police van , gave way respectfully to Frau Nordern as she stalked towards the desk . |
| 20 | There is a particular kind of French personality who always pronounce the word francais as if it were a football he is heading towards less privileged mortals . |
| 21 | IF ONLY it were a battle of flags . |
| 22 | It says the company 's marketing of Cisco is dangerously deceptive ; it induces unsuspecting teenagers to guzzle it as if it were a standard spritzer . |
| 23 | However , our error is to think of God 's Law as though it were a legal system . |
| 24 | We had our little mock boxing-matches , in my study , circling round the table as if it were a ring . |
| 25 | ’ As I read it we could not restrain abundant tears and I felt instinctively as if it were a gentle , loving hint to us to be prepared for what followed . ’ |
| 26 | Mungo imagined the strange magician conducting the thunder as though it were a mechanical orchestra . |
| 27 | There it evidently found another food supply , animating the material in its excitement as though it were a restless human hand . |
| 28 | Yes , down the lawn and through the orchard and then , if it were a really fine evening , out , up the hill . |
| 29 | When she heard them talking of home in her house it was as though it were a foreign country . |
| 30 | ‘ John , ’ Tremayne turned to me , ‘ do n't try to beat Sam as if it were a race . |