Example sentences of "[pers pn] could have been [verb] for " in BNC.

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1 Reading this , I could have been forgiven for conjuring up a picture of the Queen Mother settling down comfortably by a television set at Sandringham , perhaps a daughter at her side , a corgi at feet and refreshment to hand , basking in the glow of my birthday tribute to her , and making a mental note to instruct the Private secretary in the morning to send a line of thanks to those concerned .
2 It was such a shock to feel his animosity directed so unwaveringly towards her ; even though , after last night , she could have been prepared for something , she could only gape down at him .
3 She could have been kidnapped for all I know .
4 If her eyes had not been so bright and alert , she could have been mistaken for a corpse .
5 Her eyes were nearer black than brown and she wore woollen knee stockings ; from a distance she could have been mistaken for a child , of either sex .
6 It altered her appearance considerably , making her look older and quite severe , and in her new black working dress she could have been taken for a widow .
7 Dropped in , blindfolded , you could have been forgiven for thinking you were in Surrey were it not for the unmistakable twang of the Ulster accent .
8 Listening to the debate and the old-fashioned ideas of male supremacy it unearthed , you could have been forgiven for thinking that we were still in the 16th Century .
9 You could have been forgiven for imagining , that Peter Nicholson had undergone surgery to replace his vocal chords with a megaphone .
10 The only difference is that I suppose er at we have er which is development in North Stockton , we have er erm permission for four hundred erm executive dwellings which is the sort of er market which you could have been looking for at in the past .
11 Not long ago you could have been prosecuted for owning gold .
12 You could have been making for any one of them in a boat .
13 You have got to train that person which you could have been doing for years and
14 You could have been excused for believing that Maradonna had made a come back .
15 Erm the issue is is that potentially you could be goi we could 've been going for four point three extra people and we probably wo n't do that .
16 ‘ What do you think they could have been looking for — the people who ransacked her cottage ? ’
17 AS the Prince and Princess of Wales sat only a few feet apart in Seoul 's Presidential palace yesterday they could have been mistaken for strangers uncomfortably thrown together .
18 They could have been tailored for you .
19 It was completely anarchic , they could have been fighting for anything , cheaper teabags for all they cared , half of them .
20 After watching feeble jokes about Norma Major 's voting intentions and Neil Kinnock 's image , I wished it could have been monitored for an injection of humour .
21 It could have been leaking for months .
22 I was glad he chose to wear it , for otherwise , in his shirt-sleeves and braces walking between us , it could have been mistaken for an arrest or at least a ‘ helping with inquiries ’ and the last thing I wanted was a street riot .
23 Like the rest of the staff , he wore a burgundy-coloured uniform although , apart from his name tag , it could have been taken for a regular formal suit .
24 He could have been paralysed for life … by a toy which been hired to give him a good time .
25 He could have been forgiven for thinking that he was God 's gift to acting .
26 He could have been crying for his mummy .
27 The Prince was sitting quietly there , his hands clasped , staring down at the table , so silent he could have been taken for some studious monk ; his robes , however , were splendid , his fingers covered in precious rings , and his hair and golden beard carefully combed and oiled .
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