Example sentences of "be [prep] [subord] a [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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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 | 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 . |
| 3 | 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 . |
| 4 | It is as if a wind instrument , soulless in itself , were being played through warm and breathing tissues instead of through wood or metal . |
| 5 | 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 . |
| 6 | Mad perhaps , but it was as if a part of Mark could be preserved while she stayed with this odd assortment of people . |
| 7 | It was as if a statue had started to weep . |
| 8 | It was as if a door had opened before him into a dim but positive light . |
| 9 | 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 . |
| 10 | It was as if a voice not my own was making the call . |
| 11 | It was as if a fall lay within her that she was n't able to make . |
| 12 | It was as if a looking-glass had been diverted . |
| 13 | ‘ When I saw you at the side of the road , it was as if a nightmare had come true . |
| 14 | It was as if a harvest festival were enacted daily , for throughout the hours of market the church bell tolled quietly . |
| 15 | 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 . |
| 16 | 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 . |
| 17 | It was as if a fist had punched her very hard in the stomach . |
| 18 | Then it was as if a storm broke . |
| 19 | 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 . |
| 20 | It was as if a bit player had become a star , a menial suddenly promoted into the centre of things . |
| 21 | 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 . |
| 22 | ‘ 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 ) . |
| 23 | 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 . |
| 24 | It was as if a light had been extinguished ; the colours which were once so bright and clear had grown blurred and faded . |
| 25 | It was as if a glass wall had gone up between them . |
| 26 | It was as if a steel rope had been scraped across her palm . |
| 27 | It was as if a cloud had lifted . |
| 28 | 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 . |
| 29 | Miss Abbott , when you came to my house the other day and wandered round my studio and let me see something of your thoughts , it was as if a gale had blown through all the dust and cobwebs , all the mouldering old habits that were growing up round me like ivy , and when you had gone , I tore that canvas off the easel and smashed it — ’ |