Example sentences of "[vb past] [been] [verb] a [adj] [noun] " in BNC.

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1 co-ordinates up , erm , you know , I have n't yet had contact from er no , I thought I 'd been given a new name , but , no I have n't had con any contact from my new co-ordinator yet , erm , but that was n't in my mind when I spoke on Thursday about Christmas , perhaps I ought to pursue that one in time for the next meeting and see what 's happening in South Africa and are getting it in South America for .
2 But , on getting her act together later the next day , Laura had been appalled to discover that not only had Ross already left for Australia — but she 'd been given a small attic room next to the children 's nursery .
3 So if you 'd been given a free choice , you would n't have given your sweets to your brother , would you ?
4 I 'd been expecting a great hall with a giant round table , towering turrets , a moat and a drawbridge , but , of course , it turned out to be a ruin .
5 I 'd been writing a monthly column for Options as long as I 'd been writing at all .
6 He also told police he 'd been copying a homosexual video tape .
7 But er I mean er she , she was in a perfect position to do it , I mean she 'd been retired a long time , she was in good health and obviously an annuity would be perfect for her er where it would n't be for a younger person , so I mean life annuities not got .
8 I 'd been applying a special cream to his ankles which was supposed to harden the skin , but it did n't seem to do much good .
9 The unwary were apt to buy a ‘ pig in a poke ’ ( sack ) and find out later they 'd been sold a muted pup .
10 As soon as she 'd entered the hotel she 'd been handed a white envelope containing a fax message .
11 Then they went back to camp and the only person there was Miguel the interpreter , who 'd been having a long conversation with one of the Indians and when he turned round all the other Indians had scarpered .
12 All the better that the operation rehabilitated the credibility of the police who 'd been having a bad press in the early years of the decade .
13 Clearly he 'd been having a bad time of it .
14 If I 'd been doing a pukka delivery , I could just have carried straight on virtually due north and come to City Road .
15 I have no compass to tell me what I am destined for ; and yet , when I look back , everything seems to fit as well together as if I 'd been following a benevolent daimon all along …
16 Mr Butler had been taking a collection-box home when he was attacked on the Tube , kicked in the face , kneed in the stomach , had his head banged against a door and almost strangled .
17 The other women often talked about young men they knew , and one of them had been taking a young man back to her flat during the evenings .
18 Kochen maintained that DEC had been taking a worldwide census of ‘ hundreds of customers ’ recently to ascertain whether OSF/1-on-MIPS was a viable policy .
19 He had been serving a 20-year term in Nicosia 's central prison .
20 She was to be proved right , as we had been taught a Spartan routine for our babies at ‘ Alderbourne Arches ’ the pre-natal training unit .
21 He said the soldier told him he had been struck a glancing blow by the car , but that he had not been knocked over and afterwards had been able to continue on duty .
22 Her earlier fears had faded and she thought how foolish she had been to let a ridiculous fancy disturb her happiness .
23 The only good news to offset my ‘ disgrace ’ was that Father had proved such a success at Marconi 's that he had been appointed an assistant manager in the research department dealing with radio materials .
24 The headmistress and the governors of the school named were justly irate , for , they stated with concerted vehemence , no child had witnessed the recovery of the body of a murder victim from the canal : those children who had not been making stegosauruses out of old egg boxes had been learning an Ashanti war dance , and not one had been in the playground , which was the only vantage point from which body recovery would be observable .
25 Some believed indeed that the original intention of Soviet Mediterranean deployments had been to induce a negotiated withdrawal of the United States ' Sixth Fleet .
26 I had been swimming a long time that first Sunday , far out in the bay , and he could easily have slipped the things on to the Bourani end of the beach while I was in the water .
27 Here the buildings were disfigured almost beyond recognition ; some had fallen into the street while others leaned outwards , a hopeless thoroughfare of broken concrete , stones , weeds and pillaged furniture across which had been built a low barricade made of chairs , doors and broken tables .
28 He could explain that this had been written a long time ago , when he was quite a different person .
29 The afternoon had been declared a local holiday , as everyone knew , and it would be a fitting finale to the year 's thoroughbred racing programme at Assiniboia Downs .
30 Controversy surrounded the release in January 1991 of four Belgian hostages in Lebanon [ see p. 37977 ] , when it emerged that Walid Khaled , the spokesperson in Lebanon of the extremist Revolutionary Council of Fatah ( RCF ) who had helped negotiate their release , had been granted a three-month tourist visa on Jan. 11 , one day before the hostages ' release and at a time of great international tension because of the Gulf crisis .
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