Example sentences of "[modal v] [verb] been [verb] by [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Is it not totally unacceptable that when only 13 questions were answered on Welsh matters , four of them should have been asked by Hon. Members with English constituencies and that most of the questions were answered by a Member representing an English constituency ? |
| 2 | ‘ Whoever it is has presumably been coming regularly since last November so he or she must have been seen by other people . |
| 3 | Some of its members , namely Barry , Brodrick , Ashpitel , Jones and Lamb , must have been motivated by pure self-interest , as they themselves produce buildings in what they were saying was the hated Gothic style . |
| 4 | Leland 's gloomy view of Droitwich must have been prompted by visual symptoms — the foul streets and the sickly faces he encountered in them : ‘ the people that be about the fornacis be very ille colorid ’ . |
| 5 | In 1849 even Richard Owen hinted briefly that the modifications of the vertebrate archetype might have been unfolded by non-miraculous causes : |
| 6 | A half-mile south of the bridge the first French staff officers were rifling the mail in Charleroi 's post office in search of letters which might have been posted by Allied officers and thus provide clues of British or Prussian plans . |
| 7 | At one time — probably at any time between the Restoration and , for a terminal date , the Second World War — those questions might have been rejected by literate folk as quite foolish and empty ; because Horace has been , after all , almost an honorary Briton , so pervasive is his cultural presence . |
| 8 | Indeed , the Stamford Taurus might have been formed by early Mycenean settlers , as a representation of a Mycenean dagger carved into Stonehenge proves that people of that race were in Britain at the time . |
| 9 | Defence experts indicated that the incident , which occurred during naval exercises some 80 miles west of Izmir , might have been caused by excessive stress among junior officers prompted by a long spell at sea . |
| 10 | The higher skin damage measurement in the lower layer indicates that loss circulation material possibly was stuck in the producing rock , a condition that might have been caused by initial drilling operating practices , says Chris Drysdale , Well Evaluation group leader . |
| 11 | The move came amid reports that Iraq 's success in initiating its post-war reconstruction programme might have been assisted by systematic sanctions-busting by some countries . |
| 12 | They might have been refused by mainstream publishers or alternatively , and this is the more likely , they are making a positive choice to do it this way , since self-publication means that the writers can determine exactly what goes into their printed work . |
| 13 | Best-known to the general public perhaps , are experiments where reconstructions of early boats and ships have been used to follow and thus test the feasibility of migration routes which might have been used by ancient people , such as the experiments conducted by Thor Heyerdahl . |
| 14 | In a parliamentary debate on Aug. 28 this was challenged by the opposition Union of Democratic Forces ( which like all major parties roundly condemned the attack ) , the UDF secretary Petur Beron hinting instead that the attack might have been instigated by communist provocateurs . |
| 15 | It could have been caused by extensive lava flows or by a more extreme form of the sort of surface plasticity seen in many of the oldest surviving features . |
| 16 | ‘ TO SUPPOSE that the eye , with all its inimitable contrivances … could have been formed by natural selection , seems , I freely confess , absurd in the highest degree . ’ |
| 17 | For example , our solar system is certainly a prerequisite for our existence , as is an earlier generation of nearby stars in which heavy elements could have been formed by nuclear synthesis . |
| 18 | Henry Parris , tutor-organiser for Northamptonshire who had previously served in a similar capacity in Yorkshire North District , also acknowledged that most of his organising work could have been done by voluntary members , given the time and opportunity to travel around the county . |
| 19 | There , an impregnable first line of defence against any invader with visual taste , stood hundreds of miles of small houses that could have been assembled by retarded monkeys dipping randomly into a box of building styles . |
| 20 | This could have been avoided by stratified randomisation of the patients . |
| 21 | The defendant may escape liability if there is an alternative cause for the defect , or the damage could have been avoided by intermediate examination . |
| 22 | If there were any monsters with tentacles and teeth , they 'd have been overwhelmed by sheer force of nome . |
| 23 | The extent to which Pythagoras and his followers may have been influenced by oriental ideas has long been a subject for argument . |
| 24 | At the touch of a button , the metallic strip on an identity card will surrender every scrap of information about us stored by any government department , as well as whatever ‘ confidential ’ and uncheckable information may have been collected by secret means . |
| 25 | Its distribution again emphasises that the dispersal of some rare imports may have been governed by social or political factors . |
| 26 | A few sinuous ridges are seen , steep on both sides , and these too may have been raised by interior contraction . |
| 27 | Whilst some of these drugs may have been obtained by illegal means , the evidence suggests that a significant minority became addicted to opioids originating from a legal source , that is , family practitioners . |
| 28 | A head-on car crash in which five women were killed may have been caused by flat tyres . |
| 29 | It was of little concern to Dan that much of the weathering may have been caused by industrial pollution — what mattered was that science had found an answer . |
| 30 | Or , of course , if she is muzzled , she may have been killed by other predators against which she would have had no defence . |