Example sentences of "she could not [vb infin] [pn reflx] [prep] " in BNC.

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1 By this time Dinah was exhausted and desperate ; she could not drag herself round any more managers ’ offices today , they would look at her and see a bedraggled young woman who must be as bad as the papers said .
2 Such was the Doctor 's rage , so accustomed was Louise to obedience , that she could not prevent herself from hurrying to execute his orders .
3 She could not prevent herself from saying in a doubtful voice , ‘ You will be careful when you go to bed , wo n't you ? ’
4 Although she did not deny that he was handsome and in many ways attractive , she could not envisage herself in an intimate relationship with him .
5 After this ( but only ‘ when she was in any company ’ ) she could not restrain herself from saying , ‘ It is full merry in Heaven ’ .
6 When Ariel saw how the incomers failed to meet indigo 's exacting standards of care , she could not restrain herself from offering her expertise ; she tended , restaked , pruned and watered the trampled shrubberies of Sycorax , teaching the English how to cultivate the precious dye .
7 Unhappy with the Steads , where she was beaten with a leather strap for wetting the bed , Ruth found a happier relationship with another family , but she could not rid herself of the insecurity .
8 The name had been dropped into Karen 's consciousness only days before , at Jessica 's home near Belfast , and she could not rid herself of curiosity .
9 She could not defend herself against them .
10 She could n't prevent herself from bursting out laughing .
11 ‘ And missed Nicole 's visit ? ’ she could n't prevent herself from asking any more than she could prevent the edge that had entered her voice .
12 Jessamy was so shaken by his quietly spoken reply that she could n't stop herself from over-reacting .
13 Kate hugged her mother in return , grateful for the warm body contact between them , but she could n't stop herself from crying .
14 Even in her weary state , she could n't stop herself from wriggling self-consciously .
15 She could n't give herself to Ahmed and could n't keep herself for me , you understand . ’
16 Yet she could n't lose herself in the story ; the movements of Luke 's hand as he made lightning sketches , the lazy , sinuous stretching of his legs as he shifted his position impinged upon her concentration , and she found herself reading the same page over and over .
17 For days afterwards , she could n't rid herself of the guilty feeling that , somehow , she had brought the attack upon herself .
18 For one thing , she had never worn a strapless dress before , and although the bodice was tight-fitting and well supported she could n't rid herself of the fear that the dress would go slithering to the floor at some critical moment , leaving her almost naked , like in a bad dream .
19 She could n't defend herself without rousing him to greater ferocity ; she knew that in the moment of conflict , an enemy can never protest to be a friend and be believed ; she had seen the distrust Kit 's sudden switches of mood inspired .
20 Nevertheless , she could n't imagine herself in any form of intimacy with her employer , much as she liked him .
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