Example sentences of "which [modal v] have been a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | It is another which may have been a christianised pagan ritual , evolved from dancing round a sacred site or stone on which a church was eventually built . |
| 2 | There was a port called Minoa on the south-west coast of Sicily which may have been a Crete-controlled trading station . |
| 3 | When interest group activity is added to electoral pressure , the ‘ shame ’ attached to being held responsible for social dissensus , lead to changes which may have been a voluntary response or have been supervised by a state responding to legitimate protest . |
| 4 | The generation of numbers was regarded by the early Pythagoreans as an actual physical operation occurring in space and time , and the basic cosmogonical process was identified with the generation of numbers from the initial unit , the Monad , which may have been a sophisticated version of the earlier Orphic idea of the primeval World-egg . |
| 5 | Offa 's victory over Cynewulf in 779 , therefore , would seem to have been a signal for intensified Mercian activity on Offa 's southern border which may have been an essential prerequisite to any sustained involvement in the south-east . |
| 6 | But when I later tried to find my way back to the dining-room to finish my meal , which should have been a simple thing to do , I just could not locate it at all . |
| 7 | I felt the most awful failure , and thought that perhaps if we could try again — since the thing was done , the point of no return passed — we might arrange things better , somehow recapture the basis of feeling we had had , which should have been a perfect foundation for a love-affair , but which we had somehow bungled and thrown away . |
| 8 | Two seconds , one of which should have been a first . |
| 9 | It has been plausibly argued that the cutting of the folds ( which is very shallow ) was done during a retouching of the colour ( something which must have been a regular operation ; on colour see below , p. 28 ) . |
| 10 | Uncle once set the leg of a bull in Sleetburn , which must have been a tricky job , and I well remember the occasion when one of our cows had a really bad calving and Uncle saw her through . |
| 11 | To support Wilfrid was also to engage in a protracted dispute which must have been a long-term embarrassment both to the Northumbrian king and the archbishop of Canterbury . |
| 12 | One of the craft was in a mighty hurry when he set Judas for Jesus at John vi.67 , as happened in 1609 ; and so was his descendant in 1653 when , at Corinthians vi.9 , he pronounced that ‘ the unrighteous shall inherit the kingdom of God ’ , which must have been a great comfort to a considerable number of citizens under the Commonwealth . |
| 13 | At one time , thinking of her childhood , which must have been a grey business , rather like a long , dull , cold Sunday , he had been furious with his father-in-law . |
| 14 | Complications at the time of birth may cause mental handicap in the young child which might have been a normal foetus . |
| 15 | She heard him mutter something which might have been a mild swear word as he studied the Dobermann 's handiwork , but , his examination over , she quickly pulled up her sock again , and just as quickly planted that foot alongside her other one . |
| 16 | In the south-west bath-wing there was a central room with a small cistern and niches for presumed ‘ ritual usages ’ ; from this room came a pottery model fir-cone , which could have been a votive offering . |
| 17 | Jim Keeble recalls one amusing incident in ASF which could have been a terrible accident . |
| 18 | For example , their practice of reiterated warnings to an individual of the wrongfulness of his or her words or actions may have been to ensure that he or she did not plead ignorance of wrongdoing , which could have been an acceptable defence in the courts . |
| 19 | Yeah , but if they 'd have , if they 'd have said look , we 're onto erm a job now which would 've been a big job and it looks like it finishing up in Yorkshire , finishing up in Lancashire , be ready if we give a call out . |
| 20 | Well I 'd like to speak about the gallery I like to speak for myself and er just the visual arts and er the gallery when it first started was a gallery very much appreciated by appreciated by the Eastern Region er they saw it as potential a very significant gallery in the whole region which would have been a marvellous thing for Harlow to have . |
| 21 | In the early 1870s a six-week round trip for two people from London via Belgium , the Rhine Valley , Switzerland and France — perhaps still the standard tourist itinerary — cost about £85 , or roughly 20 per cent of the income of a man earning £8 a week , which would have been a respectable servant-keeping income in those days . |
| 22 | The effect of such a marriage , had it ever taken place , would have been to create a substantial English-dominated fief on France 's northern and eastern borders which would have been a northern equivalent of Aquitaine . |
| 23 | It was not income from the interest under the trust ( which would have been a foreign possession regardless of the underlying sources ) . |
| 24 | Some will also have provided a range of facilities for those officials and private individuals travelling along the highways , which would have been an important element in those small towns which housed a mansio or , to a lesser extent , a mutatio , though there is surprisingly little evidence to demonstrate this . |