Example sentences of "[modal v] [verb] be [v-ing] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | NETRHA officers felt vulnerable on the point that the priority groups should have been getting an increased share of the regional budget . |
| 2 | ‘ Prince Charles should have been running an organic farm , with special interests in the arts . |
| 3 | But one of the offices in the area must have been undergoing a thorough make-over , because along with the garbage and a tangled mess of strip aluminium and ceiling tiles he found a number of office throwouts that included a desk lamp with about five yards of trailing flex . |
| 4 | But he might have been speaking a foreign language . |
| 5 | ‘ The evidence extends only as far as the lower scapula , does it not ’ He could have been wearing an off-the-shoulder toga . ’ |
| 6 | While agreeing broadly with the England manager 's summing-up of the present Brazilian team , the thought did occur that in another footballing era he could have been describing an Italian side — brilliant in breakaways but giving nothing away at the back . |
| 7 | The defences could have been protecting an Imperial establishment rather than a small town . |
| 8 | Indeed , for all that is known to the contrary , Ecgfrith may have been facing a Pictish-Scottish alliance in 685 . |
| 9 | Others may have been maintaining a stressful lifestyle for years , always rushing onwards , filling their time with one impossible task after the next . |
| 10 | But he may have been wearing a dark ski cap of the Deerhunter style . |
| 11 | But he may have been wearing a dark ski cap of the Deerhunter style . |
| 12 | He may have been wearing a green bomber jacket . |
| 13 | He may have been conducting a formal press conference in very informal dress at a most abnormal time . |
| 14 | They may have intended to present the information as a factual account , or they may have been investigating a particular area with a view to using the material obtained as a background for a piece of more imaginative writing . |
| 15 | By killing Marius then , Nigel would have been sacrificing a great deal of money . |
| 16 | It would have been a long walk to here , and no doubt some other person would have been offering a dubious lift by the time she arrived . |
| 17 | Many will have been wearing a special costume for their childhood which has given them particular concealment . |
| 18 | If you are self-employed you will have been paving a flat-rate Class 2 contribution every week and possibly the earnings-related Class 4 contributions as well . |
| 19 | All I can remember is having a pickled onion and my sister stabbed it with a fork and the middle shot across the room . |
| 20 | The only way in which we can help is having a Labour government that has a policy to secure verifiable arms reductions . |