Example sentences of "it [was/were] a [noun sg] " in BNC.
Previous page Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 31 | On it were a variety of jugs and china vases from the same school of design as the pixie doorknocker . |
| 32 | A tap is turned , a pressure of 120 pounds per square inch applied to the piston , and up goes the end of the coach as easily as though it were a doll 's house . |
| 33 | An arbitration award can be enforced by application to the court under s26 of the Arbitration Act 1950 , which allows enforcement of the award in the same way as if it were a court judgment . |
| 34 | His self defence , and I now read from actually only a paragraph or so earlier than my opening passage , his self defence in the reason of Church government is quite interesting erm ‘ If I hunted after praise by the ostentation of wit and learning , I should not write thus out of mine own season , when I have neither yet completed to my mind the full circle of my private studies , although I complain not of any insufficiency to the matter in hand , or were I ready to my wishes it were a folly to commit anything elaborately composed to the careless and interrupted listening of these tumultuous times . |
| 35 | The reporter picked up his empty lager can and contemplated it as if it were a work of art . |
| 36 | Women who I had attacked for bringing up boy children wanted to know if it had been an immaculate conception or simply parthenogenesis , and what was I going to do with it if it were a boy ? |
| 37 | 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 . |
| 38 | ‘ It were a machine inside . |
| 39 | Write down this experience as if it were a dream . |
| 40 | ‘ John , ’ Tremayne turned to me , ‘ do n't try to beat Sam as if it were a race . |
| 41 | Their captain ( for so I must term him — though their forces understand no battle order and hurl themselves pell-mell on us like mere animals who must quench their parched throats with blood ) , a certain youth who is called Dulay to his people , with a trick of the eye that makes him seem to look at you and yet not see you ( and other tricks beside — I have seen this same swart creature climb a ladder into the air as if it were a tree planted there foursquare ) , we apprehended as he fled from our justice . |
| 42 | It were a kind of metal cylinder . |
| 43 | For , as far as English rugby is concerned , these are the days of miracles and wonders , the days when England can turn out the finest team ever and cavort through the Five Nations championship as if it were a lap of honour . |
| 44 | She sat in it as if it were a throne , her back bolt upright inches away from its back , her black flannel skirts smoothed to disguise the fact that only one foot could be conventionally booted . |
| 45 | Species with club-shaped spines include active hunters ( although they tend to hunt sluggish animals like other sea urchins ) and they have powerful jaws on the lower side of the animal that can munch their way through a sand dollar as if it were a biscuit . |
| 46 | The anatomy theatre , in which lectures on medicine and surgery were also delivered , held about 100 pupils , and adjacent to it were a dissecting room , yard and paddock . |
| 47 | If it were a requirement , for example , that all pupils need knowledge , skills and understanding in non-verbal communication ( body language , facial expression , and so on ) and how this influences overall communication strategies , attainment target I for the English curriculum ( speaking and listening ) might have a more integrated feel about it from a deaf perspective . |
| 48 | If it were a requirement that all pupils need knowledge , skills and understanding of alienistic language and the power of language to challenge and to change experience , we might move more in the direction of a democratic society . |
| 49 | ‘ It were a night like this when your mother went off , lass , and Jake near lost his mind when he knew she 'd gone for good . |
| 50 | He is the son of the phallic mother who has overcome her and fused with her to become a living equivalent of the perfect primal mother , not through self-castration ( the depressive alternative ) , but through manic self-assertion : a sentiment nicely summed up in the ritual of Cybele and her son Attis : ‘ a feeding on milk , as though we were born again ; after which rejoicing and garlands and as it were a return to the gods . |
| 51 | Like many I would draw the line if it were a water closet frequented by the public , but prison is not a place for such offenders . |
| 52 | ‘ Not necessarily the same person … unless it were a friend of Charlie 's . |
| 53 | Topaz talked to the Moor as if it were a friend , and on that particular day she wanted to share her thoughts with the vastness around her . |
| 54 | Since opinion is now deeply divided on so many issues , one can probably no longer talk of the constitutional order as if it were a reflection of public opinion . |
| 55 | In fact there was something almost monastic about it : as if it were a retreat for much needed solitude and quiet study . |
| 56 | A Word Child ( 1975 ) , indeed , is so specific in its references to places , and especially to places on the London Underground , that the narrator remarks he was once tempted to call his story the Inner Circle ; and Martin Amis 's London Fields ( 1989 ) is almost as detailed about Notting Hill as if it were a guide-book . |
| 57 | If it were a guarantee then we should be funded accordingly . ’ |
| 58 | That is to say , you can not describe sixteenth-century English as if it were a variant of RP any more than you can do this for divergent present-day varieties . |
| 59 | If we imagine ourselves to be standing outside time , looking down upon the history of the Universe as if it were a relief map , we get a different perspective . |
| 60 | He , Drew , was stroking a car as if it were a cat or dog . |