Example sentences of "[conj] had [vb pp] [prep] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | After a week of fighting , the war that had begun with a thunderous high-tech blitzkrieg in the skies over Baghdad had not yet delivered visible proof of victory . |
| 2 | And while she was having a whisky and eating a piece of cake at eleven o'clock , in a hapless impulse to demonstrate and somehow fix her freebooting mood — though she saw the irrationality of it on a day that had begun with a clear insight that at least she would try to equal his thinness even if she could never hope to achieve the frugality of his expectations — just as she was leaving the last part of the cake , she would think of a better way to write the note . |
| 3 | For all that they were wrapped in fog , the revolver that had appeared in a gloved hand was all too visible to Sergeant Joe . |
| 4 | But all the will-power she could muster could not shut out the desolate sense of emptiness that had closed like a cold hand round her heart . |
| 5 | Thus began the last chapter of a case that had started as a simple bank robbery , then extended into one of murder and fraud , and drugs . |
| 6 | She went to bed in her own room , still full of pictures and possessions that had belonged to a previous and vanished Phoebe . |
| 7 | A tall , prematurely white-haired man in a navy blue suit , with eyes that could focus on you as if you were a fly that had settled on a distant door-knob , he could dominate a large room while seated behind a desk at one end of it and without raising his voice above a conversational level . |
| 8 | Their so-called furnished accommodation had consisted of two old beds that had come from a second-hand shop , a brokendown settee , and a gas cooker that had probably been used all through the war . |
| 9 | ( 18 ) About four months before the time I am writing of , my Lady had been in London , and had gone over a Reformatory … |
| 10 | These people had been driven from their homes with nothing but the clothes they stood up in and had struggled through a war-torn countryside , sometimes in sub-zero temperatures , to reach a refuge where food , shelter and warm clothing were in very short supply . |
| 11 | The secretary of the new NILP branch was Ivan Cooper , who had come to public attention the previous year when he resigned from the Bond 's Glen and Claudy Young Unionist Association and had stood as an Independent candidate for the Londonderry Rural District Council . |
| 12 | The event had been going through a lean period and had degenerated into a glorified booze-up , but there were some who were interested in keeping it alive and they got together to decide if they were going to let it go or make an effort to put it on its feet again . |
| 13 | The National Democratic Front ( NDF ) , a front organization for both the CPP and the NPA , had offices in the Netherlands , and had insisted on an overseas venue , rather than meeting on Philippine soil , partly out of concern for the security of its negotiators . |
| 14 | As for the hair which used to be trimmed by a top London stylist and had swung in a smooth shoulder-skimming bob , it had not been cut for months and was now bundled unceremoniously on to the top of her head . |
| 15 | When she was in her fifties and had grown to a generous obesity , her husband would whisper proudly to his dinner guests as they stood in front of some glowing nude or abstract construction , ‘ Wonderful artist , was n't he ? |
| 16 | The President had seen the polls forecasting heavy defeat and had decided on a high-profile last-ditch effort to free the Iranian hostages . |
| 17 | He said : ‘ The car had crashed through a wall and had overturned in a marshy field . |
| 18 | Furthermore , Radio Venceremos ( the FMLN radio station ) claimed on May 29 that " special " Honduran troops had entered San Miguel department in El Salvador on May 27 and had engaged in a four-hour clash with Salvadorean forces , inflicting " numerous casualties " before being forced back into Honduras . |
| 19 | The scandal had already caused the closure of the bank and had contributed to an unprecedented number of incumbent legislators retiring or suffering electoral defeats . |
| 20 | If the deceased had led a reasonable life and had died at a good age without too much trouble , leaving a reasonably good family behind him , what was there to be miserable about ? |
| 21 | The gist of the note was that the vessel ahead of us was on the suspect list and had arrived from a foreign port . |
| 22 | The fight , in which one Sardinian had slit another 's throat from ear to ear without succeeding in killing him , had been the last straw and had resulted in an unprecedented outburst of anti-Sardinian feeling that involved not just the affected area but the whole city . |
| 23 | On the ground , in accordance with the order , 5 Corps had already entered negotiations with the Soviet authorities to take them over , and had come to a final decision ( reported to Eighth Army ) on which groups were to go . |
| 24 | And then the moment had passed , and tall and tanned and fit in the sunshine she had walked down the green street with the gardens either side of her , and had known by an instinctive glance that her mother still lived there , that nothing had changed . |
| 25 | The gasman had told us it would blow up and had stuck on a waning sign to remind us . |
| 26 | McLeish , warmed by the fact that she had taken the trouble to find out a bit about him , confirmed he had been at Reading University and had worked as a young sergeant in the Flying Squad . |
| 27 | A communiqué issued after the meeting said that delegates had declared Iraq to be a " democratic federal country " , and had agreed on a federal structure based on wilayats or provinces , reportedly as a gesture to Islamic parties which had insisted on Arab-Islamic nomenclature . |
| 28 | He had been feeling a bit better for the last few days : He had repaired the fence between the Britches and Ron Paget 's yard , filled two black plastic sacks with rubbish and had embarked on a vigorous assault upon dead and decaying trees . |
| 29 | He had driven to Roker in Sunderland and had walked for a long time on the beach , contemplating suicide , but had driven back to his son 's home . |
| 30 | For some reason it was restful to watch him lay the crochet-bordered cloth cornerwise on the polished table just so ; arrange the tea-tray , and bring in delicate , perfectly symmetrical sandwiches , and the Victoria sponge which , under his wife 's direction , he had made so beautifully and had set upon a spotless lace doily precisely in the centre of the dish . |