Example sentences of "it [was/were] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | He had been determined to produce the opera as though it were a straight play , with long and detailed rehearsal allowing the artists to explore and deepen their own work in constant conditions . |
| 2 | It were n't earlier , it were a flaming towel . |
| 3 | The churning water looked as impenetrably gloomy as the night , as if it were a liquid extension of the umbra . |
| 4 | 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 . |
| 5 | ‘ We 'd still want you to discount our bills over that time , ’ John warned , as if it were a mere afterthought . |
| 6 | A black hole emits radiation as if it were a hot body . |
| 7 | 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 . |
| 8 | ‘ There 's no sugar left , ’ he said almost as though it were a major tragedy . |
| 9 | For the same reason they have been known to treat surrounding farmland as though it were a vast municipal park across which their dogs can roam or their children can ride their ponies without much thought for the consequences . |
| 10 | 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 . |
| 11 | ‘ But you 'll do as I say and undo this little mistake , ’ he said swiftly , as if it were a foregone conclusion . |
| 12 | 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 . |
| 13 | However , our error is to think of God 's Law as though it were a legal system . |
| 14 | It were a damn sight better bloody thing than that . |
| 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 main offenders here are non-indigenous natives who have cleared areas ad acres of the best soil , farming it very poorly and working it as though it were a private farm … there is no rotation of crops and no manure applied which means he will soon be looking for another 100 acres of good soil to ruin . |
| 17 | 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 . " |
| 18 | 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 . |
| 19 | As soon as she finds one she paralyses it , using her long sting as though it were a hypodermic syringe loaded with anaesthetic . |
| 20 | And just as the born worrier hurries to the medical dictionary to look up a real or imagined ailment , then medicates the common cold as though it were a terminal condition , so there are Koi-keepers whose ponds are a permanently dilute solution of anti-parasitic/antibacterial preparations … just in case . |
| 21 | They would readily accept that an omnipresent divine being can not be viewed through a telescope , however powerful , just as heaven is not a place which can be spied upon as though it were a distant planet . |
| 22 | 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 ’ . |
| 23 | 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 . |
| 24 | 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 . |
| 25 | 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 . |
| 26 | 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 . |
| 27 | ’ 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 . ’ |
| 28 | Thinking of the faith as though it were a philosophical position , and of those who had come to preach to them as if they were travelling intellectuals , led the Corinthians to imagine themselves as judges between the various emphases they heard . |
| 29 | Lord Wilberforce pointed out that the problem was not to be dealt with as though it were a philosophical question which distinguishes identity from attributes : … |
| 30 | ‘ It were a seven-year-old in them days , and look at the date on this card — ten years ago . |