She looked as if she had seen a ghost.

They worked like so many ants.

He behaves as if he were a famous statesman.

He looked as if he had been ill.

He talks as if he were rich.

He talks as if he knew everything.

As he stood there he might have been a fiend.

Looking back on our college days, it seems as if they were a century ago.

As if you could kill time without injuring eternity.

In spoken language, we do not pause between words, a fact that is somewhat surprising. We seem to hear separate words; we can clearly make them out.