as if in ectasy

Yes, you are correct.

Not necessarily - we only know that she threw her head back in the same manner that one would do when in ecstasy.

Only the other sentences would tell us the context of whether it was in pleasure or pain.

Re: as if in ectasy


Poor reading skills, Sully?

Yoong Liat is correct.

I saw this as:

Jane threw her head back as if in ecstasy. (model sentence)


It means it appears that Jane is very happy. (his perception)
Am I correct? (his question)


The question is the word "happy"

as if is key vital to the meaning of the sentence.

Otherwise, it would be Jane threw her head back in ecstasy.

And the key to the statement that Yoong Liat is correct is that he wrote: "It means it appears[/u] that Jane is very happy. Am I correct?"

Yoong Liat is correct.

Maybe I spend too much time around serial murderers.

This line could have been used to describe a violent attack.

That would not alter that Yoong Liat was correct is his use of the verb "to appear."

Yoong Liat is correct.

Re: as if in ectasy


One could reasonably assume that YL wants a meaning that accurately reflects what most readers would discern and I'm, at least, partially certain that YL could accept that he was in fact mistaken. The context surrounding this isolated sentence may well show that Jane is not at all happy.

"It appears that Jane is very happy" is but one interpretation, and it is certainly possible that it is a mistaken one.