Example sentences of "[noun sg] [modal v] have been [art] [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Black Prince may have been an unforeseen bonus . |
| 2 | The division may have been the only way that Chlothild was able to ensure that part of Clovis 's realm passed to her offspring . |
| 3 | He does n't actually use the words but his philosophy is clearly that the New Zealand sojourn may have been the darkest hour but that the darkest hours comes before the dawning of a new day . |
| 4 | According to Carrick 's admittedly biassed complaint , the anonymous correspondent must have been an ambitious junior officer , for ‘ there is no body of Men so full of plot and envy as the Excise ’ . |
| 5 | The opportunity should have been a real opportunity of doing something effective . |
| 6 | The result may have been a conflicting programme for pupils . |
| 7 | The general effect must have been a serious breaking-up of the great landed estates of Britain and their redistribution to absentee landlords , apart from those who preferred to move to Britain and take up residence . |
| 8 | The murder must have been a severe shock to her and she would no doubt be deeply concerned over its effect on her husband ; she should have gone to see her yesterday , or at least telephoned . |
| 9 | Yet portions cling to the style of days gone by , when a salt beef sandwich might have been the single meal of the day . |
| 10 | Head of the Department of the Environment 's science unit , Dick Derwent , who was in Teesside to see the progress , dismissed suggestions that Redcar 's Technical College might have been a better site . |
| 11 | Another holding could have been the obscure Bigstrupp Farm , or hamlet , of which there is no record between 1346 and 1797 . |
| 12 | The result would have been a Californian bank second in size only to New York 's Citicorp . |
| 13 | Section 11(1) of the 1977 Act states : 11 – ( 1 ) In relation to a contract term , the requirement of reasonableness for the purposes of this Part of this Act , section 3 of the Misrepresentation Act 1967 and section 3 of the Misrepresentation Act ( Northern Ireland ) 1967 is that the term shall have been a fair and reasonable one to be included having regard to the circumstances which were , or ought reasonably to have been , known to or in the contemplation of the parties when the contract was made . |
| 14 | Balanchine would have been the last person to break or contradict the thematic content and destroy the composer 's intentions . |
| 15 | There , the influence of the honorary senior medical staff was considerable , and the presence of a medical superintendent would have been an unwelcome irritant . |
| 16 | He declared that the ANC and its allies wanted " peace and democracy " and that " if the government … responds in the same spirit , our action will have been the best thing that could have happened to the negotiations process " . |
| 17 | The decision to split the test may have been a political one . |
| 18 | Johnny Marr 's guitar work may have been a stable basis of listenability but it was Morrissey 's release from years of repressed loser attitudes which made The Smiths so special . |
| 19 | Gough Square was no backwater — Dr. Samuel Johnson had lived there a few years before — and a Gough Square lady must have been a good catch for an impecunious cheesemonger 's son . |
| 20 | The post mortem now states quite categorically that he was not killed by any sort of missile ( the open window must have been a red herring ) . |
| 21 | The two tall oblongs of light from the first-floor drawing-room window should have been a welcoming promise of warmth and comfort . |
| 22 | This is that the dance might have been the only way , given apine physiology immediately before its evolutionary debut , to solve that problem . |
| 23 | Lunch might have been an unqualified disaster , she reflected a little while later , but dinner was proving less of an ordeal than anticipated . |
| 24 | ‘ Oh , come , Sir Edmund , he could have been a Cardinal of Rome and his fate would have been the same . |
| 25 | The old lady would have been a lissome girl , like the girls now coming through the main entrance of the boma , carrying large plastic containers of water on their heads , keeping them in place by a casual touch of the hand . |
| 26 | Hall would have been the resident manager . |
| 27 | I wonder whether the umpire 's attitude would have been the same if the offender had been his opponent , the comparatively unknown Grant Connell . |
| 28 | The opinion polls said that the Shadow Chancellor would have been the better man to defeat the Conservatives . |
| 29 | No doubt the return would have been a high one and I have to take account of that . ’ |
| 30 | ( b ) Only or main residence Relief from any liability to capital gains tax on any transfer should be available in most cases because the former matrimonial home will have been the only or main residence of both the husband and the wife . |