Example sentences of "[be] [prep] [conj] a [noun sg] " in BNC.

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1 You can just imagine what it would be like if a child was actually wearing this at the time of ignition .
2 But yes I think that would be plus or a minus depending on your on your point of view .
3 One may compare such a public certification of the title with the stamp on a coin , which attests the genuineness of the metal , whereas the system of private investigation of title is as if a man was obliged to employ an expert analyst to test the genuineness of the coins which might be tendered to him .
4 In these experiments , the rats learn the new trick best at those times when they remember the old trick least well : it is as if a rat can learn a new trick more easily when its memory is not muddling it with the memory of the old trick .
5 It is as if a wind instrument , soulless in itself , were being played through warm and breathing tissues instead of through wood or metal .
6 The whole effect is as if an aftermarket body-kit specialist has had a go at embellishing a 911 , with the predictable result .
7 It was as if a balloon was being blown up inside her head , and the space in the balloon needed to be filled with knowledge .
8 Mad perhaps , but it was as if a part of Mark could be preserved while she stayed with this odd assortment of people .
9 It was as if a statue had started to weep .
10 It was as if a door had opened before him into a dim but positive light .
11 It was as if a crumbling away of the carefully built-up layers of education , technical training , so-called civilisation , was taking place , leaving her stripped of all her carefully acquired adult assurance .
12 It was as if a voice not my own was making the call .
13 It was as if a fall lay within her that she was n't able to make .
14 It was as if a looking-glass had been diverted .
15 ‘ When I saw you at the side of the road , it was as if a nightmare had come true .
16 It was as if a harvest festival were enacted daily , for throughout the hours of market the church bell tolled quietly .
17 It was as if a couple of animals hounded from one burrow , nest or lair had im-mediately taken possession of another and started up just where they had left off .
18 At nights , particularly , she had felt loneliness so great it was as if a hole had been torn in her soul , something irreplaceable had been ripped from her .
19 It was as if a fist had punched her very hard in the stomach .
20 Then it was as if a storm broke .
21 It was as if a genius creator , after six days ' labour , had become uninterested in his achievement and had delegated responsibility for the rule and administration of his work to a band of bureaucrats — a tireless bunch of imbeciles , lacking compassion , who justified their role in the scheme of things by ceaselessly inventing trials for man , to keep him on his toes .
22 It was as if a bit player had become a star , a menial suddenly promoted into the centre of things .
23 It was as if a woman who thus lowered herself disowned her right to be considered a person , a soul ; as if it would be no sin to take advantage of her lust because one could not possibly soil her any further .
24 ‘ It was as if a key turned , ’ Margaret Drabble once remarked of her easy transition from student days at Cambridge to the life of an instant bestseller in realistic fiction with her first novel , A Summer Birdcage ( 1962 ) .
25 There was nothing obviously wrong — Albert sitting at one end of the table in front of his books and Hepzibah making an apple pie at the other , pressing the pastry top with a fork to make a frill round the edge — but it was as if a light had gone out .
26 It was as if a light had been extinguished ; the colours which were once so bright and clear had grown blurred and faded .
27 It was as if a glass wall had gone up between them .
28 It was as if a steel rope had been scraped across her palm .
29 It was as if a cloud had lifted .
30 When he stormed in the door it was as if a gale of wind was behind him , and he shouted his wife 's name at the top of his voice .
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