Example sentences of "were [prep] first " in BNC.
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| 1 | Staff and pupils were on first name terms , so that Miss Clifton was Cliffy to her face , and Anna Essinger , who had been dubbed Tante Anna in German , was known simply as T A. The children contributed to the maintenance of their school , to the extent of making furniture and cleaning and repairing the building . |
| 2 | GE of the USA had ten times the back-up staff and resources of EMI and were on first name terms with the key people in the medical world . |
| 3 | Some feared the use of the schools by proselytizers to indoctrinate the children in protestant principles , especially as the local managers were at first mainly clergy of the established church . |
| 4 | Understanding in this sense means being able to perceive structure amongst a set of observations that were at first sight perplexing and confusing . |
| 5 | In their rural isolation Belorussian peasants were at first little affected by anti-religious campaigns and actions emanating from the towns , even if priests disappeared and churches were commandeered . |
| 6 | Relations between Mrs Thatcher and the new Irish Fianna Fáil premier , Charles Haughey , were at first tense . |
| 7 | Some ministers were at first embarrassed at what they regarded as her ‘ preaching ’ and ‘ moralizing ’ but in the end accepted it as part of the Thatcher style . |
| 8 | The city or suburban dwellings of the new class were at first too small to accommodate the extended family . |
| 9 | Donning a yarmulke , he promised a Jewish group that ‘ we 'll keep a glatt [ strict ] kosher kitchen at the White House , ’ a pledge that his aides were at first unsure whether to treat as a jest or for real . |
| 10 | They did not wear much in the way of body protection or helmets ( early Frankish shield bosses were at first classified as helmets by early archaeologists ) . |
| 11 | Her activities were at first regarded with suspicion by headmistresses of local schools , so , to placate those who did not outright forbid their pupils to attend , she described her lessons as rhythmic exercises to music . |
| 12 | At Diego Garcia Island , 3,647 kilometres away ( in the Indian Ocean ) , the sounds of the explosions were at first thought to be coming from a ship in distress , firing its guns to attract attention , so the people ran out to vantage points on the coast of the island to try to see it . |
| 13 | Consequently in the western world diamonds were at first not regarded as objects of beauty — other stones such as emeralds and red garnets were preferred . |
| 14 | It is probably true to say that these new sensations were at first quite undetected , as such , by himself . |
| 15 | While this was a good thing , such improvements were at first only superficial , and it was a long time before everyday living conditions in deaf boarding institutions and day classes were of acceptable standard . |
| 16 | Just as the new conceptual artists have more passion than they were at first credited with , so many of the new painters amount to more than the sum of their supposed influences . |
| 17 | Brian : ‘ We were at first . |
| 18 | These troops , clearly oblivious to danger , were at first thought to be a Dutch contingent , and had come so close that the Bren gunner could fire only two magazines before grenades knocked out his weapon . |
| 19 | Her body was found by a man walking along the beach at Reculver , near Herne Bay , on February 28 but Kent police were at first unable to identify her . |
| 20 | Despite its official view that all states , republican as well as monarchic , were equally repressive and repugnant , its members were at first by no means implacably hostile to a regime which promised |
| 21 | The paintings were at first estimated at FFr4–5 million by Paris expert Eric Turquin and their sale was planned to help purchase a scanner for the hospital . |
| 22 | Sweating remained , child labour survived , and reformers could still find terrible poverty to expose , but improving conditions meant rising expectations , even though these were at first limited to a few . |
| 23 | The so-called ‘ Palace Style ’ amphoras were at first made and used only at Knossos itself , which strongly suggests that they were made for the use of the ruling elite . |
| 24 | The author of the Vindiciae similarly asserts that since " none were ever born with crowns on their heads and sceptres in their hands , and [ since ] no man can be a king by himself , nor reign without a people … it must of necessity follow , that kings were at first constituted by the people . " |
| 25 | It has been suggested that the paranotal lobes of insects were at first connected with epigamic behaviour ( Alexander and Brown , 1963 ) but it is perhaps more likely that they were associated with locomotion from the beginning . |
| 26 | " Values " which were at first aesthetic have become didactic . " |
| 27 | It appealed directly to aristocratic sporting interests , and the Zoological Gardens in Regent 's Park were at first restricted to members and their guests . |
| 28 | However , these processes — central though they were to the success of PNP were at first given little attention in the LEA 's in-service support programme . |
| 29 | They came into existence along with democracy — with the development of parliaments and elections — after the American and French Revolutions , and were at first ‘ parties of notables ’ , that is to say , relatively small electoral committees composed of individuals who had prestige and wealth in their own constituency or electoral district . |
| 30 | The discussion that is recorded about Lothar 's age suggests that some were at first not too keen to elect a pope in his thirties who , on recent record , might last for half a century . |