I am having some trouble with the following pattern that I came across in the Japanese Graded Readers series: verb + くらい

1)午前十一時二分、突然、目が見えなくなるくらいの明るい光が広がりました。(Japanese Graded Readers, Level 4, Volume 1,　永井隆, pg 15)
2)風の音、雨の音、稲妻の光……、峨眉山も崩れるのではないかと思うくらいでした。(Japanese Graded Readers, Level 4, Volume 1,　杜子春, pg 25)
3)するとそのとき、彼の耳に声とは思えないくらい、とても小さな声が聞こえました。(Japanese Graded Readers, Level 4, Volume 1,　杜子春, pg 32)

I would be grateful if anyone could explain how to process くらい, or if there is a post somewhere on the forum that you could point me to (I didn't see one when I searched). Thank you.

Jim

This usage is a bit similar to ほど, if you know that. You could translate it as "to the extent that." (I've kept my translations pretty literal so that it's easier to see the structure).

目が見えなくなるくらいの明るい光 -- "a light that was bright to the extent that one's eyes become unable to see" -- "a blindingly bright light"

風の音、雨の音、稲妻の光……、峨眉山も崩れるのではないかと思うくらいでした -- "The sound of the wind, the sound of the rain, the light of the lightning... they were to the extent that you might wonder if even 峨眉山 would crumble."

彼の耳に声とは思えないくらい、とても小さな声 -- "A very small voice, to the extent that it seemed not to be a voice in his ear at all."

This page may be helpful:
http://www.renshuu.org/index.php?page=gr...4#mhead237 (It's the second meaning listed).

Thank you. That helps a lot.