Example sentences of "[prep] [conj] it were [verb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | So either you say there 's no general will or there is something like a general will , but it is not easily recognizable and for either reason you would want to be much more tolerant of the role minorities , either as a way of getting to the truth , or erm as a way of as it were making up the truth as you 're going along . |
| 2 | And out of the disorder of the mangled metal work comes a process as flowing and systematic as if it were building a pristine model from scratch . |
| 3 | Claudia , waking with a head that felt as if it were filled with lead , almost fell out of bed as her alarm rang . |
| 4 | Day after day the German heavies pounded the corpses in this gully , until they were quartered , and re-quartered ; to one eye-witness it seemed as if it were filled with dismembered limbs that no one could or would bury . |
| 5 | She put the envelope down on the small table that served double duty as desk and dining surface , eased off her shoes , and stepped out of the cotton dress that felt as if it were struck to her damp skin . |
| 6 | ‘ No , ’ Reynolds said , and he shifted his grip on the brown paper as if it were getting hot in his hands . |
| 7 | Her heart was pounding harder and harder , as if it were getting ready to leap out of her breast . |
| 8 | ( Almost , she thought afterwards , as if it were done for her . ) |
| 9 | Her conscience said nothing , it felt as if it were holding its breath . |
| 10 | The rudder felt as if it were covered with barnacles , and the engine sounded old and tired , but there was no reason for grounding the plane . |
| 11 | Perspective telescopes : with my nasty coffee , I read a report on race riots in my native city , where family and friends remain , as if it were recounting the behaviour of black and white mice in cramped and stressful lab conditions . |
| 12 | And the tall tree arched over at the top in a graceful curve like a shepherd 's crook , as if it were looking down to admire itself . |
| 13 | He stroked her face , and then ran his fingers through her hair , looking at it as if it were made of some delicate , finely spun silk . |
| 14 | He tossed it aside as if it were made of straw and she knew she would be lost if he touched her . |
| 15 | Although light is made up of waves , Planck 's quantum hypothesis tells us that in some ways it behaves as if it were composed of particles : it can be emitted or absorbed only in packets , or quanta . |
| 16 | For long chains , co-operative motion can not be expected to extend along the entire length , and the polymer tends to act as if it were composed of a series of interconnected , but independent , kinetic units . |
| 17 | It was therefore natural to test the phonograph as if it were taking down shorthand . |
| 18 | foreshadowed the ‘ construction ’ approach in Lonrho by treating the common law criminal contempt as if it were created by a hypothetical enactment and asking what intention was to be inferred , with regard to civil liability , from the exercise of the contempt jurisdiction . |
| 19 | His body ached all over and the wounded arm felt as if it were dropping off . |
| 20 | Each £250 or part of £250 will be treated as if it were bringing in an income of £1 a week . |
| 21 | This is at the heart of Wittgenstein 's criticism of St Augustine 's account : it is ‘ as if the child could already think , only not yet speak ’ ( PI 32 ) ; as if it were learning , not its native language , but a subsequent one . |
| 22 | A further example is the modern Australian lungfish , of the genus dipnoi , which has a substance in its brain that lowers its metabolism when rivers seasonally dry up , as if it were hibernating , so it could survive while others died off . |
| 23 | There was a strong babble of concerned voices , a thicket of hands reaching out to steady him , but Li Shai Tung was conscious only of the way his skin stung as if it were stretched too tightly over his bones — how his eyes smarted as if hot water had been thrown into them . |
| 24 | But the theremin played its part by itself , as if it were programmed to . |
| 25 | Margarete 's memorialising book about Milena , published when the author was already in her late seventies , gives grimly graphic pictures of camp life , and underlines , as if it were needed , how the two womens ' all too comprehensive experience of two totalitarian systems led Milena to declare that Stalinism and Hitlerism were indistinguishable ( as a result of which the communists ' leader in the camp declared that ‘ after the liberation Milena Jesenska and Margarete Buber-Neumann would be stood up against the wall by the Red Army . ’ |
| 26 | I suppose I was remembering all those tests I had so long ago , all those nasty little operations — ’ Irene broke off , looking intently into her cup of coffee , as if it were to blame . |
| 27 | Very deliberately , and as if it were giving him great pain , the German who had said little began to speak . |
| 28 | But she said that almost as if it were expected of her rather than with conviction — and the family knew it . |
| 29 | Benny had smiled at her but again it had seemed a little as if it were expected . |
| 30 | The medieval oak furniture , dark and glowing , was said by Mr Hulsby to look as if it were nourished on stout . |