Example sentences of "a [adj] [conj] rather [adj] [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The sun flames orange and pink behind the trees above the house , the breeze is cool rather than cold , scented with flowers and the sea , and you think what a pleasant if rather bland place this would be to settle down . |
| 2 | ) . Their biggest hit was called ‘ But I Love Sergeyevitch ! ’ which was probably the first pop song to treat Mikhail Sergeyevitch Gorbachev in a friendly if rather frivolous manner . |
| 3 | I found Basil a shy and rather quiet man who had a deep sense of fun under his quiet exterior . |
| 4 | To many this might seem a dry and rather dusty concern ; but those who have watched the progress of AD can hardly fail to ask if the person they once knew is still somehow trapped within the body and mind of the sufferer . |
| 5 | The other meaning uses plastered in the type of structure which we have introduced in the present section ; notice that it allows addition of to be ( and that it is parallel in its overall structure to ( 42 ) where there is a non-finite clause complete with subject , verb and object ) : ( 41 ) Clara wants the façade to be plastered ( 42 ) she wants the builders to plaster the façade Let us also take note of a subtle and rather interesting ambiguity , found in : ( 43 ) Oliver imagined her red-haired This may mean that Oliver is allowing himself to speculate on the effect of , let us say , adding a wig to a blonde lady of his acquaintance ( and this may therefore be called the " cosmetic " version ) ; or he may be trying to build a mental picture of someone he has never met ( the " unacquainted " version ) , in which case imagined could be replaced by supposed with very little alteration in the meaning of the whole . |
| 6 | The much vaunted scum defence leaks two goals against a plucky though rather ordinary side ; ho ho ho . |
| 7 | A lively and rather loud woman 's voice could be heard below them in the drive , speaking to Giancarlo in very quick Italian . |
| 8 | It was a clear but rather chilly night . |
| 9 | Let us start with a simple and rather stark model along the lines of Peacock and Rowley ( 1972 ) . |
| 10 | Yet it is also possible to see the form as a stylized if rather primitive representation of the female deity . |
| 11 | Though his first wife remains a shadowy and rather pathetic figure about whom one longs to know more , there is plenty here on the crowded , ramshackle household and its often hand-to-mouth existence constructed entirely around the demands of the workaholic , temperamental sculptor — the hoarded treasures , the art and music which pervaded the house , the much loved but somewhat casually raised children , the constantly changing and eccentric cast of live-in models , nannies , general factotums , portrait sitters , studio visitors , plaster moulders , musicians , friends and members of the press who were usually given short shrift . |
| 12 | From a brief and rather difficult passage in his judgment [ 1991 ] 2 H.K.L.R. 400 , 413 , it seems that Barnett J. was disposed to consider that the submission was correct , but it evidently served only to underline his reasons for concurring with the district judge . |
| 13 | There are coach excursions to the great classical site at Epheseus ( a long and rather expensive day by Turkish standards ) , and visits to carpet making villages where you 'll have a fascinating glimpse of Turkish country life . |
| 14 | There has been a long and rather pointless debate on this question . |
| 15 | Ivy had her hands full with the driving , and although Zen soon gave up trying to follow their route on the maps he had brought with him , which proved to bear only a partial and rather disturbing resemblance to the landscape , like a mild hallucination , he kept up a show of poring over them to try and assuage his guilt at being a mere passenger , unable to share her burden . |
| 16 | A late and rather unreliable source also explained some of the northern discontent in 1469 as the result of the demands of the Hospital of St Leonard at York for payments of sheaves from the northern counties ( 13 , p.121 ; 40 , p.218 ) . |
| 17 | Lunch was a grand if rather noisy affair . |
| 18 | He made his name in the 1950s as a prize-winning and rather racy novelist . |
| 19 | He knew the Springalls , a good but rather secretive family . |
| 20 | Immediately we could sense a rough and rather unpleasant atmosphere , but we allowed ourselves to be swept up the steps of the first house into a howling throng of excitable spectators . |
| 21 | A useful if rather schematic starting-point is Lawton 's ( 1983 ) division of cultures into eight aspects or sub-systems which he argues can be used to analyse any culture : the social system , economic system , communication system , rationality system , technology system , morality system , belief system and aesthetic system . |
| 22 | The top octave is not , however , much used as a general rule except for very special solo effects where a relentless and rather brutal characterization is being aimed at . |
| 23 | In fact it is complicated , immensely so , because the sum over paths or histories is a gigantic and rather ill-defined notion . |
| 24 | The grandson of ATLAS , Bellerophon was a beautiful if rather arrogant youth . |
| 25 | Sporadically , Katherine Mansfield conveys the volatile atmosphere in the comfortable apartment and Beatrice emerges as a deluded and rather pathetic exhibitionist . |
| 26 | It also has a short but rather wonderful section on feminism and humour — an undeserved absence in feminist cultural studies — and a timely recognition of the strength of women 's ‘ comic subversions ’ . |
| 27 | To be more accurate , while Norah Docker sought the cameramen Sir Bernard hung about like a good-natured but rather dim St Bernard dog providing the money for her extravagance . |
| 28 | From his porch , Joseph watched with a sullen and rather bleary eye : the night had been long on reminiscence and several barrels had been tapped to celebrate old victories . |
| 29 | Yet her intolerance was attenuated by a fundamental and rather unexpected liberalism . |
| 30 | To the beginner , the proliferation of academic criticism in particular can present a bewildering and rather daunting picture of competing schools of thought . |