Example sentences of "[is] like [verb] " in BNC.
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| 1 | Jip and Zab 's father claims that computer logic , unlike human logic , ‘ ca n't cope with a word used in a figurative sense , or with humour , which depends on wordplay , which is like assigning two values to a character ’ ( 87 ) . |
| 2 | Assigning a particular molecular orbital to its symmetry species is like assigning a vibration to its symmetry species ( Section 5.7 ) : we need to consider the effects of the various symmetry operations on the sign and orientation of the wavefunction . |
| 3 | ‘ Keeping a secret in the Manse is like hiding a fire under straw . |
| 4 | Imagine what it is like to sit through a meeting , go to the theatre or try to follow a further education class if it is essential to see the speaker 's face in order to understand what is said . |
| 5 | For thirty minutes it is like trying to push a marshmallow into a coinbox . |
| 6 | Laser beams consist of photons which , though small by atomic standards , have a cumulative inertial effect , Dr Carl Wieman of the University of Colorado , who heads one research group , says that cooling an atom with a laser beam is like trying to slow down movement of a heavy object by bombarding it with ping-pong balls . |
| 7 | Propping up the pound is like trying to get water to run uphill . |
| 8 | ‘ Getting information from anybody is like trying to extract teeth . ’ |
| 9 | The view through the small rear mirror is rather limited , as Jill Stanton has mentioned before , and the manual wing mirrors are so stiff that trying to fine-tune them is like trying to thread a needle wearing boxing gloves . |
| 10 | To ask us to strike meaningful comparisons across such a technological gulf is like trying to compare a theory of the origins of the universe based on observations through Galileo 's lens with one facilitated by radio telescope . |
| 11 | Maintaining that sum of money ( which 20 years ago was the threshold of affluence ) is like trying to keep a snowball in your pocket by waiting until winter comes . |
| 12 | It is like trying to get a firm grip on a plateful of pudding . |
| 13 | But consuming rhino horn will do you about as much good as chewing your finger nails ; however , trying to tell that to the people who consume rhino horn is like trying to tell Ian Botham to lose weight . |
| 14 | Again , the control layout would bother me because the volume pot for the bridge pickup is the middle of the three , but I think I could get used to it — although at present it is like trying to get used to driving a new car where they 've put the gearstick in the middle of the passenger seat . |
| 15 | Now , neither Souness nor the Liverpool fans have any idea how the team is going to perform on any given day and trying to predict that is like trying to find eight draws . |
| 16 | To force together two protons that are initially far apart , for example those in two separate hydrogen atoms , is like trying to encourage the two north poles of a pair of magnets to join at a distance of less than a billionth of a millimetre . |
| 17 | It is like trying to ladle out the sea with a sieve . ) |
| 18 | Squashing a bad girl is like trying to squash a bluebottle . |
| 19 | It is like trying to predict the outcome of a game of chess before anyone has made a move . |
| 20 | Adjusting to the disjointed ordering of time is like trying to adjust to the idea of massing all one 's sleeping hours into the first couple of weeks of the month to have the remaining two weeks wide awake . |
| 21 | Alas , being the best man at an actor 's wedding is like trying to direct an actor who wants to direct . |
| 22 | Building a complex structure by evolution is like trying to build a mortarless arch if you are allowed to touch only one stone at a time . |
| 23 | ‘ Trying to talk to you is like trying to charge through a brick wall . |
| 24 | Trying to snatch a word with you is like trying to hold on to a fistful of quicksilver . ’ |
| 25 | Trying to raise efficiency and morale without first setting this structure to rights is like trying to lay bricks without mortar . |
| 26 | It is like trying to push on a piece of string : it can not be done . |
| 27 | It is like throwing a grain of sand upon the sea-shore to-day , and thinking you may find it to-morrow . ’ |
| 28 | That is why producing yet more images , he wrote , is like eating cardboard . |
| 29 | It is like eating cardboard , and tastes about as good . |
| 30 | ( 1 ) If seeing something is like eating it with the eye , so that it gives us sensations in our eyes as eating manna gives us ‘ sensations of sickness , and sometimes of acute pains or gripings ’ in our stomachs , then what physically enters the eye comes to have an importance not only for understanding the physical mechanism of visual perception , but also for understand the concept of visual perception . |