Example sentences of "[was/were] trying [to-vb] [adv prt] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Adds Lt Watts : ‘ What often made situations all the more tragic was the fact that these poor From here is single col for page 7 people were trying to carry on with their lives . |
| 2 | Cars have been popular in the movies since Mack Sennett was wrecking them around 1914 in such shorts as Lizzies of the Field — not funny to some members of early audiences , who were trying to save up for a Ford Model T or ‘ tin Lizzy ’ . |
| 3 | The best thing to get richer is like , going round car boot sales , like my mum , she 's so funny , dad said she 's a different woman , she 's just like , cos when Phil and I erm , were engaged , we were trying to save up money , so we , oh and like we 'd sell off all our old stuff , so just give me of money , and then , we got these and my mum was pricing everything up , and she 's going , if someone asks for a discount , do n't , just do n't give it to them , she said , everyone 's going round pricing everything up and erm , when they come to you , they just , they just want things for nothing . |
| 4 | A young man in a smartly hideous jacket tried to come out while the kids were trying to go in . |
| 5 | One or two offers of touring productions or guest star status in provincial reps came in , a sure sign that their managements were trying to cash in on the name of Michael Banks before it was completely forgotten . |
| 6 | Waving his men into a pincer formation , Mortimer surprised the small group of machete-wielding rebels who were trying to wear down the staff of the building . |
| 7 | Having failed to sanction expulsions , reformers were trying to drive out their opponents by personal insults , directed mostly at Karoly Grosz , the General Secretary , and Janos Berecz , the former conservative ideology chief . |
| 8 | Some sailors were trying to put up a small sail , but the wind blew it out of their hands , away across the sea into the night . |
| 9 | ‘ Maybe they were trying to put up a smoke-screen . |
| 10 | They swarmed like lice over the camp , and there was a battle being waged at the boat which men were trying to push out of the shallows whilst others held off the beasts . |
| 11 | And you knew what they were thinking , they were trying to weigh up whether they dare go across the stepping stones and you could tell by their faces and what they did of course when they decided no it was beyond them and they 'd play safe and they 'd go back the same way . |
| 12 | John Houston , managing director of Catering & Allied , said the benefits of the scheme were particularly relevant in a recession where companies were trying to hold down costs . |
| 13 | So there we were trying to fish out a bunch of keys from a three-foot pit full of human urine and excrement . |
| 14 | He warned that conservatives were trying to claw back power . |
| 15 | A statute of 1388 attempted to reinforce the Statute of Labourers , the measure enacted to control wages after the Black Death of 1348–49 , but attempts in 1389 to put it into practice showed that men were trying to shake off the stigma of villein tenure , even at the cost of taking a cash wage worth less in real terms than the combination of cash and food which they had been paid previously , insisting on working by the day rather than contracting for a yearly wage , and exploiting the possibility of alternative employment ( 65 , pp.92–5 ) . |
| 16 | The Germans , he reckoned , were trying to wipe out the docks , yet somehow the city centre seemed to be getting the worst of it — and all the shops and offices and streets of little houses . |
| 17 | Tessa could hear him breathing on the threshold outside for several minutes more , as if he were trying to summon up the courage to return and say something . |
| 18 | I just assumed they were trying to cut back as they had been a bit too lavish . |
| 19 | ‘ Huh , ’ said Angalo , nonchalantly trying to swivel around in the chair in case any tentacled things with teeth were trying to creep up on him . |
| 20 | ‘ I know , ’ she nodded , ‘ and that was what we were trying to work out . ’ |
| 21 | They were trying to sneak up and gain entry without being seen by the shapechanger . |
| 22 | Even so , there was competition for places in it towards the end of her reign , and many of the ageing Chamber officers were trying to bring in their own relatives as their successors . |
| 23 | The press were trying to build up a great rivalry between Ben and me , especially as I had never raced him . |
| 24 | I must admit , some of you probably were brought up on Meccano , and certainly not in the mo mo more sophisticated technology we 've got at the moment , but the point is , a lot of these have n't really seen this part of what I call the basic technology itself and er , it was interesting because we were trying to build up some kind of game for their summer fair and the game was quite obviously er , you know er propel a ping-pong into a er series of slots with er , bit like bingo to a certain extent , where you can actually er give prizes for the various holes you could actually penetrate and things like that . |
| 25 | He jetted out in his role as President of the Council of European Farm Ministers to join EC Agriculture Commission Ray MacSharry and US Agricultural Secretary Edward Madigan who were trying to button up a deal before the transition of the US Presidency . |
| 26 | But I were trying to get through to her . |
| 27 | Outside , the storm howled about the house as though a pack of wild wolves were trying to get in . |
| 28 | ‘ People were trying to get out of carpark and away from the town and this man was still insisting he got his 20 pence from every driver . ’ |
| 29 | Surveying these now prosaically productive acres of beet and potato , it is as hard to imagine their undrained state as if one were trying to conjure up some fabulous landscape lost beyond recall . |
| 30 | We were trying to find out where his particular niches lay and the constant worry at that time was lack of money . |