Example sentences of "[subord] it were a [adj] [noun] " in BNC.
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| 1 | I think also that he liked Kelham — provided it were a short visit , for he was by nature and inclination a townsman — because he felt that such establishments were of great value in carrying on , in addition to theological instruction , the classical tradition . |
| 2 | The poet writes as if the train were a woman to give it a more human and emotional element and to allow the reader to be involved with the journey on a deeper level than would be necessary if it were a simple poem taken from an objective rather than a personal view . |
| 3 | The churning water looked as impenetrably gloomy as the night , as if it were a liquid extension of the umbra . |
| 4 | If it were a two-year wonder , and then all of the 31 pits that had been threatened were to close , that would be completely unacceptable . ’ |
| 5 | For instance , a group of adolescents intending to look at how a family might drive one of its members to suicide , began their drama by working out the family 's relative positions round the graveside , concerning themselves with ‘ how it would look if it were a still photograph ’ . |
| 6 | He sat at the head of the table carefully scrutinising the document in front of him as if it were a religious text which he had to examine for scriptural errors . |
| 7 | This also was familiar to him , the ability , at times of danger , to issue commands to his body as if it were a separate entity . |
| 8 | I can imagine , when we have set up the institutions and signed in principle to the treaty , the Whips coming up to me and saying , ‘ Look here , Spicer , you are talking about this opt-out as if it were a real option . |
| 9 | We 've got to realise that there 's going to families out and about , and what we 'll do is the aircraft er I have n't seen the scenario on paper , but just off the top of my head , I can tell you that the aircraft will make their approaches to the base as if it were a real target . |
| 10 | Children have to learn competence in this mode in terms of its syntax , its organisational patterns and its contextual constraints — much as if it were a second language . |
| 11 | ‘ We 'd still want you to discount our bills over that time , ’ John warned , as if it were a mere afterthought . |
| 12 | 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 . |
| 13 | The first was that they were legally members of the National Church by virtue of being Crown Subjects ; this was nonsense of course as the tolerance introduced after the ‘ Glorious Revolution ’ recognized Dissenters ' right to exist , even if it were a restricted right . |
| 14 | 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 . |
| 15 | With a gesture to the conventions of deathbed narratives , Landry reads Freemantle 's account as if it were a twentieth century novel . |
| 16 | The Leader , so he told his people , had lifted this distempered fog , this old corruption of Italy , and shone a bright blazing torch into the darkness of the bosses ' law , sweetening it as if it were a malarial swamp , squashing the mosquito lawyers and owners and priests breeding in it . |
| 17 | Although many in central government speak of the FMI as if it were a homogeneous concept and practice , there are conceptually and operationally many FMIs . |
| 18 | The superintendent sighed and turned the paper round and round in her hands as if it were a visual conundrum that could be solved by approaching the problem from an unexpected angle . |
| 19 | They stood on the concrete steps reviewing the dismal scene as if it were a personal insult . |
| 20 | Hotman points out that while " they may be a people without a king … a king without a people is as inconceivable as a pastor without a flock , " and suggests that the supposed ancient kingdom of Francogallia " was not subject to the law of inheritance as if it were a private patrimony but was habitually transferred by the votes and decisions of the people . " |
| 21 | Hermit crabs , however , do not simply put on a shell as if it were a new pullover ; they show two remarkable adaptations to the problems of ‘ wearing ’ the shells of alien snails . |
| 22 | In this case the relationship is treated as if it were a one-to-many relationship , but the records on the ‘ many side ’ are duplicated because each record can be related to several parents . |
| 23 | Ludens held her moist hot hand between his thin dry cool hands , nursing it upon his knee as if it were a wounded bird . |
| 24 | An enemy unit may charge a Squig Hopper and fight it in hand-to-hand combat exactly as if it were a normal cavalry model . |
| 25 | A black hole emits radiation as if it were a hot body . |
| 26 | They all confirm that a black hole ought to emit particles and radiation as if it were a hot body with a temperature that depends only on the black hole 's mass : the higher the mass , the lower the temperature . |
| 27 | ‘ But you 'll do as I say and undo this little mistake , ’ he said swiftly , as if it were a foregone conclusion . |
| 28 | If it were a perfect world the cable links into subscribers homes would also be of optical fibre , and upwards compatible in the future . |
| 29 | Its nervous system is being controlled , as irresistibly as if it were a helpless drug addict , or as if the cuckoo were a scientist plugging electrodes into its brain . |
| 30 | Presumably this act was meant to signify the unleashing of chaos , except that instead of being summarily tossed to the ground , the bookcase was lowered as gently as delicately as if it were a fragile ceramic from antiquity . |