Example sentences of "[vb mod] [adv] have [be] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Guy Sterne must presumably have been a last-ditch contact . |
| 2 | Since a great proportion of them were engaged in growing corn and other basic needs of life , there must already have been a considerable proportion of the European population who needed to be fed by the labour of others . |
| 3 | The effect is to make you think for a second that the church is only half there , that there must once have been a second side to it , to the right of the tower . |
| 4 | Even in the failing light , Theda could see that the drive was ill kept , and the surrounding gardens overgrown , and what must once have been a graceful line of trees bordering the rutted gravel lane now struck a flutter of apprehension in her breast . |
| 5 | The Water of Leith must once have been a clear and sparkling river . |
| 6 | It must always have been a real hope on Wilfrid 's part that a king of Northumbria from another branch of the royal family or from a noble line claiming royal descent would be more favourably disposed towards him than the descendants of Oswiu . |
| 7 | It seems likely , therefore , that transport must always have been a limiting factor on trade . |
| 8 | There must also have been a great number of ferns , lycopods and horsetails existing as understorey plants but also isolated in dense swards , There was not the wide-scale domination of conifers hinted by Benton which somewhat invokes a picture of foodless dark plantation-style forests . |
| 9 | There must therefore have been a certain piquancy for him in now extending hospitality to the fallen monarch . |
| 10 | If the Man of Law had a prose tale it should certainly have been a serious and learned tale like Melibee , the Parson 's Tale , or Chaucer 's translations of Boethius ' De consolatione philosophiae or Pope Innocent III 's De miseria condicionis humane , and thus a tale of the kind that found a place in fragment VII . |
| 11 | But although ‘ Tuxy ’ Girdle may not have been a youthful Hooligan , it did emerge that he had been running whores and he received a substantial sentence of penal servitude for the assault on the man whom the gang had suspected of being a police spy . |
| 12 | Here , this view becomes converted into the argument that the refusal of treatment may not have been a rational decision or may not appear to others to have been so . |
| 13 | For all his undoubted talent Grayson may not have been a budding Ian Rush but he turned out for one of the country 's most famous clubs , perhaps not the best but certainly one of the best known — Accrington Stanley . |
| 14 | The intention may not have been a scorched earth policy , but the effect on some departments was the same . |
| 15 | Now , Muze magazine may not have been a high profile organisation but it did provide a much needed platform for the flourishing Manchester rock scene . |
| 16 | But it was thirty-one years later and recent scholarship has questioned whether the anecdote might not have been a retrospective invention . |
| 17 | She glared at him , wondering whether the indigestible steak , swiftly followed by an early night , might not have been a better option after all . |
| 18 | There was no question of saying to myself ‘ better luck next time ’ — there might not have been a next time . |
| 19 | That might not have been a wrong number . |
| 20 | Time to Declare by David Owen ( Penguin , £7.99 ) — Had he not fallen out with the Alliance , this passionate rebel male might well have been a key figure in this the general election . |
| 21 | He had no idea she already had suspicions which might well have been a contributory factor to her miscarriage . |
| 22 | Then , with the Czech serving for what might well have been a decisive two set lead . |
| 23 | But all the stamping and cheering in the Empress ballroom might almost have been a vain attempt to muffle the sound of hats flopping intermittently into the leadership ring . |
| 24 | His thick-set holler lifts what might otherwise have been a cool but minor diversion into a work of real significance . |
| 25 | The Maggot , faced with these scathing judgments , countered by asserting that Ellen 's education had ruined what might otherwise have been a useful bimbo , and loudly proclaimed that her extreme aversion to himself was positive psychological proof that she was secretly enamoured of him . |
| 26 | The ‘ state of war ’ declaration clouded what might otherwise have been a clear-cut case of American aggression and gave the White House the makings of a case under international law . |
| 27 | Pleading poverty , he sought charity from local shopkeepers , and a butcher gave him an enormous turkey , which might actually have been a small emu . |
| 28 | There is also a small late building on a totally different alignment ( almost east-west ) which could perhaps have been a small Christian shrine , erected to counteract pagan influence . |
| 29 | Maybe I was worried that someone else would read my diary , but if so this worry could only have been a slight one : I was much too careful to afford anyone the opportunity to snoop . |
| 30 | Such an equilibrium could only have been a temporary one , being based upon the fear of a common enemy , rather than on a positive material joint interest . |