Example sentences of "they [verb] [be] [verb] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The unwary were apt to buy a ‘ pig in a poke ’ ( sack ) and find out later they 'd been sold a muted pup . |
| 2 | ‘ No , no , what they did was attach a slow fuse to the gunpowder and left it coiled under the bed . ’ |
| 3 | In fact this sweeping assertion seems rather too broad : what they did was impose a single procedural regime . |
| 4 | What they do is to introduce a new element into the concept of responsibility which involves more than free will and reason ; now a third party is present and is an active participant in the language game in which responsibility has a role . |
| 5 | ‘ They 've been gone a good while . ’ |
| 6 | They 've been given a better education , a longer and healthier life and higher expectations , but no future . |
| 7 | Now they 've been given a derelict school building , gutted by fire , for their new community association . |
| 8 | And because they 've been given a tantalising series of glimpses of a fuller life , they 're aware and starving . |
| 9 | But then , perhaps all chicks get to look like that , when they 've been raped a few thousand times . |
| 10 | They 've been restoring a battered old narrowboat . |
| 11 | When the cameras had long since departed , I was left to carry the can and answer any angry participants who felt they had been given a raw deal . |
| 12 | They had been crossing a scree ; there had been many loose stones , and footing was difficult , but surely at that point they had been traversing a gentler slope , and her employer had actually been standing on a flattish stretch of granite when she had fallen . |
| 13 | Astute team that they were — from Kylie herself , through father Ron and Svengali Blamey to PR people Sally Atkins and the McCright brothers Ron and Rob — they were aware they had been dealt a one-off set of cards . |
| 14 | More satisfied than if they had been handed a big discount on a plate . |
| 15 | After hearing that they had been attending a high school graduation party , they were released by the judge on the condition that they were each driven to their parents ' home exactly as they appeared in court — with only a blanket for |
| 16 | One moment they had been crossing a burning glade of shoulder-high grass in the full glare of the sun and the next they descended abruptly into a dark , silent , mysterious world where the air was cool and moist , the earth soft and spongy underfoot , and dazzling orchids blazed suddenly among the deep green undergrowth . |
| 17 | Most of the ‘ masters ’ of torture said that they had been fighting a desperate unseen war , whose atmosphere could not be imagined by people from democracies . |
| 18 | She was born when they had been married a few years . |
| 19 | The dispute was still continuing in 1637 : the lessees of the disafforested lands complained that ‘ the people of the country adjacent will not pay any considerable rent for what they say have been their commons ’ , although they had been allotted a considerable share of the forest wastes in lieu of common rights . |
| 20 | Complacency about recession could destroy the Tories yet : they have been given a sharp warning by the electorate and they disregard it at their peril . |
| 21 | Right across Britain they have been given a new lease of life . |
| 22 | In the author 's constituency , for example , there is a company whose main competitor in Germany has been given switchgear free of charge by the local electricity board , and they have been given a twenty-year loan at no interest for generating plant . |
| 23 | Now they have been given a fresh lease of life , inviting the ( wrong ) conclusion that the need for a further shake-out is past . |
| 24 | The former ought to be more prominently displayed , the article says , so that patients are n't confused about whether they have been given a different type of medicine when collecting subsequent prescriptions . |
| 25 | If they have been taking a prescribed drug this is likely to have been methadone , and if the daily dose can be established this can be prescribed . |
| 26 | Since then they have been effecting a gradual programme of repair , restoration and alteration . |
| 27 | Women are particularly vulnerable to diseases such as arthritis , osteoporosis ( brittle-bone disease ) and heart attacks in their middle years if they have been leading a sedentary life , sitting slumped in front of the television , losing muscle tone and even bone mass . |
| 28 | ‘ They have been doing a fantastic job putting the Berlitz name in a leading position since the move from Lausanne and through the process of merger with Fukutake , ’ said Mr Kirkpatrick . |
| 29 | No doubt they have been promised a good party in return . |
| 30 | They have been fighting a real war , a race war , a class war , a war over resources and territory , a war in which real children die every day , a war nobody can win because no territory is conquered and the body counts do not mean victory . |