Example sentences of "[modal v] [adv] have [been] [art] [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Guy Sterne must presumably have been a last-ditch contact . |
| 2 | Since a great proportion of them were engaged in growing corn and other basic needs of life , there must already have been a considerable proportion of the European population who needed to be fed by the labour of others . |
| 3 | Even in the failing light , Theda could see that the drive was ill kept , and the surrounding gardens overgrown , and what must once have been a graceful line of trees bordering the rutted gravel lane now struck a flutter of apprehension in her breast . |
| 4 | The Water of Leith must once have been a clear and sparkling river . |
| 5 | It must always have been a real hope on Wilfrid 's part that a king of Northumbria from another branch of the royal family or from a noble line claiming royal descent would be more favourably disposed towards him than the descendants of Oswiu . |
| 6 | It seems likely , therefore , that transport must always have been a limiting factor on trade . |
| 7 | There must also have been a great number of ferns , lycopods and horsetails existing as understorey plants but also isolated in dense swards , There was not the wide-scale domination of conifers hinted by Benton which somewhat invokes a picture of foodless dark plantation-style forests . |
| 8 | The watering hole must also have been the only one in the area for all sides produced finds , and finds of a reasonable age . |
| 9 | There must therefore have been a certain piquancy for him in now extending hospitality to the fallen monarch . |
| 10 | If the Man of Law had a prose tale it should certainly have been a serious and learned tale like Melibee , the Parson 's Tale , or Chaucer 's translations of Boethius ' De consolatione philosophiae or Pope Innocent III 's De miseria condicionis humane , and thus a tale of the kind that found a place in fragment VII . |
| 11 | The first they saw of the village may thus have been the dilapidated thatched cottage called Gilberts or Gilbards , which , improbable as it would have seemed to Coleridge in the fever of Pantisocracy , was to have so important a place in his later history . |
| 12 | The smell , coming from the rear of a building , might easily have been the unpleasant odour given off by a dustbin in need of emptying . |
| 13 | This mosaic is the more imposing piece of work , but the fragment might also have been the central display of a comparable arrangement . |
| 14 | He speculates whether their physiology , and hence their metabolism , might also have been an intermediate one . |
| 15 | Time to Declare by David Owen ( Penguin , £7.99 ) — Had he not fallen out with the Alliance , this passionate rebel male might well have been a key figure in this the general election . |
| 16 | He had no idea she already had suspicions which might well have been a contributory factor to her miscarriage . |
| 17 | Then , with the Czech serving for what might well have been a decisive two set lead . |
| 18 | Yet he sensed that those next few minutes , after Ashenden had finished speaking with Kemp , might well have been the crucial ones in that concatenation of events which had finally led to murder ; and he questioned Ashenden further . |
| 19 | But all the stamping and cheering in the Empress ballroom might almost have been a vain attempt to muffle the sound of hats flopping intermittently into the leadership ring . |
| 20 | Lord Clifford , if not an eccentric peer , might almost have been the archetypal spendthrift one , for , despite a rental of £453 a year , his home in Skipton castle was appraised at a mere £60 ; similarly his son , Sir Henry Clifford , had £80 a year , but only £8 in personal estate . |
| 21 | In some cases it might have been irrelevant because companies would have decentralized anyway ; in others it might have enabled decentralization or , in combination with other factors encouraged it ; in some cases it might indeed have been the single most important immediate consideration . |
| 22 | His thick-set holler lifts what might otherwise have been a cool but minor diversion into a work of real significance . |
| 23 | The Maggot , faced with these scathing judgments , countered by asserting that Ellen 's education had ruined what might otherwise have been a useful bimbo , and loudly proclaimed that her extreme aversion to himself was positive psychological proof that she was secretly enamoured of him . |
| 24 | The ‘ state of war ’ declaration clouded what might otherwise have been a clear-cut case of American aggression and gave the White House the makings of a case under international law . |
| 25 | Pleading poverty , he sought charity from local shopkeepers , and a butcher gave him an enormous turkey , which might actually have been a small emu . |
| 26 | In North Worcestershire also industrial growth made little or no visible impact on the structure of wealth , possibly because a man 's position in the rural hierarchy determined his choice of trade , In Yardley tile making had evolved as a major activity early in the fifteenth century ; along with tanning , which may still have been the principal industry in nearby Birmingham , it was practised by farmer-craftsmen , who mostly had well under £20 in goods , the £3 — £9 range forming a good two-thirds of the list : Thomas Walton , whose £11 was the highest assessment , made tiles and practised cooperage in winter . |
| 27 | There is also a small late building on a totally different alignment ( almost east-west ) which could perhaps have been a small Christian shrine , erected to counteract pagan influence . |
| 28 | Maybe I was worried that someone else would read my diary , but if so this worry could only have been a slight one : I was much too careful to afford anyone the opportunity to snoop . |
| 29 | Such an equilibrium could only have been a temporary one , being based upon the fear of a common enemy , rather than on a positive material joint interest . |
| 30 | Zen 's barking background could only have been a big plus the day he found a newborn baby whose entire experience of life was going to be lying abandoned for a few hours by a creek near Plymouth . |