Example sentences of "could not have [vb pp] the [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | ‘ Even Ellery himself could not have scored the try better , ’ he insisted . |
| 2 | She was sure that he could not have survived the shot to his heart . |
| 3 | But even then the East End of London could not have represented the rest of the country ; and even he plays for our pity , opening with a classic portrait of poverty and deprivation . |
| 4 | According to Nelson , divers could not have reached the wreck without cumbersome diving suits and mixed gas air supplies . |
| 5 | The Court of Appeal subsequently upheld convictions in the case , saying that although the remarks ‘ raised the appearance of bias ’ , and were ‘ doubly deplorable ’ as involving a respected ethnic minority , they could not have affected the outcome of the trial . |
| 6 | The relevant circumstances were that : ( i ) the limitation terms had nut been negotiated by any representative body ; ( ii ) the buyers could not have discovered the error ( i. e. that the wrong seed had been delivered ) until after the crop was sown , whereas the sellers were in a position to have known ; ( iii ) the buyers could not reasonably have been expected to cover such a risk ( i.e. of crop failure ) by insurance whereas it was possible for seedsmen to cover their liability by insurance at a modest premium which would not have put up the cost of seeds by very much ; ( iv ) the error could not have occurred without some negligence on the part of the sellers . |
| 7 | Certainly , they could not have studied the group if they had been honest about themselves , but perhaps that just means that there are some social contexts that we can not study . |
| 8 | By the time they reached Letterkenny they were thirsty , so had a drink , and by the time they reached the shore road between Ray and Drumhallagh could not have pinpointed the cottage in the wood with any certainty to save their lives . |
| 9 | I could not have poisoned the bread , my lord Niccolò , if you had not introduced it , against explicit orders . |
| 10 | Such differences could not have influenced the interpretation of our findings with respect to the effect of NSAID on duodenal histology , because of two main reasons . |
| 11 | If he had n't agreed to appear we could not have raised the cash to make the show . ’ |
| 12 | But I could not have foreseen the circumstances . |
| 13 | ‘ Like all provincial towns , it will lose its individuality , ’ said Hardy when presented with the Freedom of the Borough in 1910 , but he could not have foreseen the demise of the small local shops so intrinsic to the town 's character , or the threat of a huge new shopping centre . |
| 14 | Although at the time of his discovery Priestley could not have foreseen the use of oxygen in aeronautics as Vital Air for the aeronauts to breathe when the atmosphere became too thin , such use was suggested as early as 1784 . |
| 15 | There was a slight seasonal effect of gradually declining response to models , but this could not have biased the results because the response to crest accentuation went in the opposite direction , increasing significantly between early ( small crests ) presentations and the first accentuated crest presentations . |
| 16 | He said dogs could not have killed the rabbits in the way they had been savagely slaughtered . |
| 17 | The man below could not have seen the movement , but he felt some shifting of the air above him , or heard , perhaps , if he had a wild beast 's hearing as he had its gait , the mere rustle of a sleeve against the stone . |
| 18 | Broadly , if the courts believe the authority would still have granted the consent if they had known that they could not have imposed the condition in question , the permission stands without the offending condition , but if the answer is that they probably would not , then the permission itself falls . |
| 19 | The conspirators at Gloucester could not have planned the soldier 's death , of course , but still she shuddered . |
| 20 | My room was on the landward side of Chapuis , so in any case I could not have watched the schooner depart . |
| 21 | Not that he could not have held the ball up in that wind if he had been so minded . |
| 22 | Mr Thomson said Mr Wilson could not have got a bus to the area where he was found , which more than a mile from a road , and he could not have walked the distance on his own . |
| 23 | It had provided the money , and had earmarked it : the local Assembly could not have changed the plans to one for a new school or slaughterhouse . |
| 24 | The oil crisis alone could not have shattered the confidence which capitalists felt during most of the golden years . |
| 25 | My landlord and his servant were in no hurry to help , and could not have climbed the cellar steps more slowly , but luckily a woman , who I supposed was the housekeeper , rushed into the room to calm the dogs . |
| 26 | If Taczek had murdered Mills , he could not have administered the poison that had thrust Marek into a coma . |
| 27 | In Orwell 's time , Wigan was as much a cotton town as it was a coal town , and if his excavation of the elements of exploitation was to have been adequate , it could not have omitted the experience of women in the cotton industry . |
| 28 | For the south-east and in Burgundy , the arrangements of 511 could not have provided the sons of Chlothar with any precedent . |
| 29 | Faced with a silenced pistol , pointed unwaveringly at his head , and not knowing that the girl could not have pulled the trigger against an innocent man , he acceded to her demand … |
| 30 | In this way , although it could not have considered the fact , it was very like the man who waited in the shadows of its home territory . |