Example sentences of "[was/were] [verb] [pn reflx] [prep] [art] [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | To the rapid , repetitive beat two glistening bodies were contorting themselves into an impossible position , their backs horizontal to the floor and no more than a foot from it . |
| 2 | With their assistance , gears and warped carburettor components and portions of armour major and minor were assembling themselves into an enormous baroque weapon . |
| 3 | Thus , a number of professors of English and other influential educationalists were addressing themselves in the altered postwar environment to the issue of the disciplinary revisions required in order to produce " enlightened " bureaucrats , administrators , and teachers . |
| 4 | At the Taj , Indian families were grouping themselves for the professional photographers who swarmed over the central platform . |
| 5 | The hackers were surpassing themselves in the inventive ways they hit the ball badly , and often , and in the wrong direction . |
| 6 | In effect the Berlin banks who loaned money to the Junkers were paying themselves through an agricultural clearing house in East Prussia . |
| 7 | You were getting yourself into a whole load of trouble , Fran , and I needed to ensure that there would be someone around to look after you when I could n't be . |
| 8 | At the start of the year , several firms were steeling themselves for the tough , face-losing decision to pull out of some markets — or out of the securities business altogether . |
| 9 | At the top of the stairs , somewhere beyond a short , misty journey , Jeopardy led Lucien into a room where a handful of musicians were preparing themselves for the coming performance . |
| 10 | Our terms of reference made it clear that we were to concern ourselves with the English curriculum for all pupils , whatever their mother tongue . |
| 11 | Meanwhile , the Chancellor was bracing himself for a furious political storm when he unveils his autumn package on Thursday , including a mystery ‘ fiscal package ’ ministers are remaining tight-lipped about . |
| 12 | To cling to a Polish identity was to exclude oneself from the German monopoly on higher education and from all but menial employment in industry ; given the rapid depopulation of the countryside it was also to insist on the right to become and remain part of a backward , ignorant , illiterate , inward-looking agrarian people , stuck in a rural backwater with no access to the outside world , with scant interest from that world and little hope of progress . |
| 13 | It occurred to Cassie that he was keeping himself under an unnatural control , like a muzzled animal . |
| 14 | ‘ Ca n't you leave us alone now ? ’ he pleaded and Wexford felt impotently that once again the man was enclosing himself within the unimpregnable defence of grief . |
| 15 | This man was lodging himself like an irritating burr under her skin . |
| 16 | The third case resulted from the willingness and need of the firm to take work from any source while it was establishing itself in a new market . |
| 17 | Eisenhower , who was in the midst of his re-election campaign and was presenting himself to the American electorate as ‘ a man of peace ’ , failed to make clear to his British and French colleagues in the Atlantic Alliance the depth of his reluctance to countenance the use of force over an issue that was only important and not vital to US interests . |
| 18 | Two young women were in the room ; one was reading a magazine , the other was stuffing herself into a tight corset of black vinyl that appeared to be a part of a stylised nun 's costume . |
| 19 | However , to knock down old buildings was to put himself beyond the pale — not before time perhaps , but hardly for the right reason . |
| 20 | He had no time for the cant of the priests about sin , but he knew , as he lay in the barracks hearing the grunts and panting of his companions , that he was honing himself for a superior form by refusing his body . |
| 21 | He was losing himself in the grey surf of her eyes , his heart threatening to smother him with its frenzied pounding . |
| 22 | Her decision was extremely painful , for Beatrice believed ( as it happened incorrectly ) that she was committing herself to a celibate life for ever : |
| 23 | Patrick did n't need to be a doctor to know that his mother was drinking herself into an early grave . |
| 24 | This body was to turn itself into the Labour Party in 1906 . |
| 25 | He was preparing himself for a British Council tour of France but it was cancelled at the last moment ; he did , however , fly to Amsterdam and then on to Rome in December under the auspices of the same organization . |
| 26 | In some haste he drafted a brief manifesto to show how the Conservative Party was adapting itself to the post-Reform Act political scene . |
| 27 | Hyacinth nervously straddled the pot again and , supported by her mother , was lowering herself over the steaming brew when the door crashed open . |
| 28 | He 'd put some more money in the meter and was warming himself by the newly-lit fire . |
| 29 | She looked round swiftly to check whether the others had seen him but Conrad was pouring wine and chattering , Philippa was settling herself into the crimson beanbag , Larry was moving around in the kitchen , John was sipping his drink and testing out her rocking-chair and the lad with the twisted arm was hovering , uncomfortably . |
| 30 | The music by which he frequently composed his poetry ( a natural continuance of a centuries-old tradition ) was asserting itself as an independent expression . |