Example sentences of "[conj] had been [v-ing] [adv] [prep] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | that he finally gave way to the tears that had been building up inside him since Michael 's visit . |
| 2 | In the brief walk from No. 22 to his own flat he had pulled from the back of his mind a conviction that had been forming there without much conscious thought on his part , just something he knew . |
| 3 | There was no sound or sign of life other than the scolding of blackbirds and the sudden dash of a startled fawn that had been grazing absorbedly on the fresh grass at the forest edge . |
| 4 | She waited , holding her breath , wondering whether he would really answer all the questions that had been buzzing around in her head ever since she had first met him , or whether he would skirt around the subject and depend instead on the overwhelming attraction she felt for him to talk her back into bed . |
| 5 | She placed a cup of coffee in front of him , but Travis was still letting go with everything that had been tearing away at him ever since he had first clapped eyes on Rosemary . |
| 6 | But what it did do was provide a unique workshop of the ideas that had been bubbling up in the years since the cracking of the ice in 1956 , and in a context which leapt over the boundaries of ‘ official ’ politics , whether mainstream , Marxist , anarchist , reformist , or Maoist . |
| 7 | He knew this was something that had been happening slowly for a long time , something that had to happen or he was lost , but it was such a brittle structure they were building , one word would topple it , shatter it , one word would be enough to jerk them back into that ordinary daylight where nothing could be changed or righted , nothing could unravel . |
| 8 | This position was not only the culmination of ideas that had been knocking around in Balcon 's mind for the past six years or so , it was also a declaration of a new confidence in the possibility of British cinema , and a final casting off of the inferiority complex that had impaired British filmmakers since 1918 . |
| 9 | Voices that had been chattering away at you all your life . |
| 10 | Ramsay knew her by repute only and had been looking forward to seeing her in person . |
| 11 | The young Robert Zimmerman had changed his name to Bob Dylan and had been wailing away for a couple of years or so , and Nicholson was among the first of his fans who listened to and studied the words of his anti-establishment anthems , ‘ The Times , They Are A-Changin ’ and his ‘ Mr Tambourine Man ’ which was a taunting , haunting song with a very hard edge that white middle-class youth took to be an ode to a dope dealer , which Dylan denied . |
| 12 | It was n't that long ago that John Hurt was drinking heavily , and had been doing so for years . |
| 13 | Bodie was making eyes at the girl , and had been doing so for most of the hearing . |
| 14 | They said yes , Andrus did come on Fridays and had been doing so for years . |
| 15 | By 1975 local expenditure represented over 20 per cent of GNP in Scandinavian countries and had been increasing substantially in other parts of Europe ( Newton 1980:8 — 9 ) . |
| 16 | Demonstrating what a simple change at the top can achieve , Compaq Computer Corp , which had sales of $3,200m last year and had been heading back towards the $2,000m mark under the previous regime , last week announced that it had made it through the $4,000m sales barrier for 1992 , with profits up 34% in the most recent quarter . |
| 17 | He mumbled that he was still in a state of shock and had been walking around in a dream all day . |
| 18 | She had n't been reading at all but had been glancing out of the window not seeing the gracious gardens that surrounded Summer Lodge , but planning ways to help Craig when he came to her . |