Example sentences of "[was/were] the first " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | As though we were the first man and woman ever , walking in the Garden of Eden . |
| 2 | Ayr Raiders were the first stop and the second period saw Devils take a 4-1 lead . |
| 3 | The steppes were the first to be affected , so that in June alone over a million peasants left them for the Volga . |
| 4 | The balance of trade in manufacturing swung from a surplus of £2.75 billion in 1979 to a deficit in 1984 of £3.75 billion and the years 1983 and 1984 were the first time in history that Britain 's trade balance was in the red on manufactures . |
| 5 | I suppose we were the first people in the 1960s to target our market and bring to people things that were well designed at an affordable price . |
| 6 | We were the first to automate all that . ’ |
| 7 | Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so . |
| 8 | Five new openings were the first of 18 new crossing points announced yesterday by the East German authorities . |
| 9 | Scandinavian countries were the first to have to close waterways because of poisoning problems and now Britain has a potential crisis . |
| 10 | Northampton were the first to go down this road when they appointed Barrie Corless last year . |
| 11 | He went on : ‘ Looking back , the fact that we were the first to say Thatcher should go over the Lawson affair meant that we were in the game . |
| 12 | Fifty-one Vietnamese deported from Hong Kong earlier this month were the first of 3,600 deemed to be illegal economic migrants , after they had failed screening tests by the UN High Commission for Refugees . |
| 13 | The 1980s , he notes , were the first decade in history in which there was no increase in the area of land farmed and — also for the first time — a fall in the amount of fresh water used per capita . |
| 14 | The French were the first to object : they still had qualms about German rearmament . |
| 15 | In the 1940s the elderly , often totally without pensions , were the first concern . |
| 16 | It was they who bought the new consumer items produced by the new industries and who , as already suggested , were the first to practice family limitation on a significant scale . |
| 17 | B. Hunslett claims the Service Crew were the first élitist group to travel the country with the casual look , and that they brought it to the attention of the general public . |
| 18 | Tammuz had enmired himself , no doubt , in a veritable maze of minor and major legal infringements : destruction of Tech-Green equipment and forging documents were the first that sprang to mind . |
| 19 | Two stretcher bearers were the first casualties of the industrious Mr de Loza for making gestures at the offical , and Valencia manager Guus Hiddink saw yellow and red in quick succession . |
| 20 | Jayhawk and Defiant were the first , both entered in the January trials and then retired as the newer America and Kanza were flown in from their builders in Rhode Island . |
| 21 | Emily and her husband , and little Alexander were the first residents at No 28 . |
| 22 | The published accounts of these journeys and the plants found , 250 in Kent and 72 more in Hampstead , were the first records of the herborising expeditions which were to become a regular part of the Apprentices ' training in botany . |
| 23 | These were the first volumes to be received by the library from overseas and it is significant to note that after two centuries many of the original books remain on the shelves and Miller 's Dictionary is still is use . |
| 24 | Perhaps because they were the first in the field , or more probably for deeply rooted socio-political reasons , the classicists have never been seriously challenged — theories have come and theories have gone but the belief in the control function of management has remained — even more so at the level of practice than of theory , although at that level , some insights can be gained . |
| 25 | What are now her Remains were the First fruits of her Studies … |
| 26 | These were the first nuclear stations to be built anywhere in the United Kingdom for some time , and they attracted special attention . |
| 27 | Their ecological dominance and biological success for the past 80 to 100 million years may stem from the fact that they were the first group of predatory social insects that both foraged and lived in the realm of rotting vegetation on the ground . |
| 28 | ‘ They were the first people here , before the people of Amantani . |
| 29 | After a while the whistle is repeated — by the same blackbird or by its mate — but always as if this were the first time it had occurred to him to whistle ; if this is a dialogue , each remark is uttered after long reflection . |
| 30 | They were the first known tamers of animals . |