Example sentences of "had [adv] [be] a [adj] [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | However , by adept diplomacy , he was able to impose a form of pax Britannica on what had hitherto been a turbulent part of Africa and thereby maintain the conditions best suited for fostering trade . |
| 2 | There was further a need to replace what had hitherto been a haphazard method of payment by a more formalised scheme involving the payment of a specified sum on the completion of each flat . |
| 3 | He had rendered her almost mindless there and it had all been a cheap trick , not even part of his wish to get her to accept her father . |
| 4 | Now she finally had to admit that it had all been a total failure . |
| 5 | It had all been a far cry from the excitement of her engagement to the handsome young houseman when the Stevenses had celebrated with a party in the garden of their home . |
| 6 | Perhaps it really had all been a terrible misunderstanding . |
| 7 | And as if it had all been a bad dream , Tara wakes up soon after . |
| 8 | In the Titan he had only been a partial paladin — merely part of a vaster amplified body which also comprised Tundrish and Valence and Zed Juron and , oh yes , Akbar too . |
| 9 | He 'd closed his eyes once in the last forty hours , and that had only been a restless doze in the back of the car on the way to the border . |
| 10 | It had only been a brief talk and nothing improper was intimated . |
| 11 | At a personal level the visit had obviously been a great success , but Napoleon III came away without any specific extension of the Entente and he left the British Ministers unconvinced of his desire for peace and stability in Europe . |
| 12 | The first sessions had obviously been a useful learning experience for all concerned . |
| 13 | Of course , Jessamy 's arrival on the scene as Julius 's fiancée had obviously been a major crisis . |
| 14 | And it had been little comfort to realise — since he clearly could n't be bothered to even make the effort to get in touch with her — that her marriage had obviously been a disastrous mistake from the very beginning . |
| 15 | He could smell the drink ; it had obviously been a heavy session . |
| 16 | It had long been a controversial issue and its approval had been delayed for years because of worries about the environmental consequences and the cost of the project . |
| 17 | In the printing trade , mobility had long been a traditional element in the organization of mutual support . |
| 18 | Agricultural hard labour , primarily the cultivation of cotton , had long been a prominent feature of TDC activity . |
| 19 | So it should happen that Mr Kirkley was at home when the guests arrived and was able to add to his surprise and not a little amazement when his daughter 's friend was delivered at his door by Raggie Aggie , for Aggie had long been a known character , she and her hand-cart , and now the pony-driven flat-cart ; and of course the fact that she was almost as broad as it was . |
| 20 | Getting to the launch point , the village of St Arnaud near the tip of the Southern Alps , had long been a logistical triumph . |
| 21 | Mr Goria , 49 , a former Christian Democrat prime minister , had long been a favourite target of opposition MPs and was unpopular in the country because of the chaotic and tactless way he introduced a hated property tax last year . |
| 22 | The sudden chill of isolation which Britain felt in a hostile world , and the thrill of Dominion contingents serving alongside troops from ‘ home ’ , raised in new form what had long been a nagging conundrum — that the outlying parts of the Empire which Britain defended bore no appreciable share of the burden , precisely because of the fundamental political syllogism : no taxation without representation ; no representation without common responsibility ; no common responsibility without sacrifice of separate independence . |
| 23 | Damn him if she would explain that the young man to whom he 'd referred had merely been a fellow Briton attending a conference on international computing , that they 'd exchanged nothing more than a few polite comments natural to fellow compatriots abroad , and that his arm had been lying across the back of the bench seats and not round her shoulders . |
| 24 | His territorial reordering of the 1470s had apparently been a great success , creating a nexus of trusted associates prepared to work in the crown 's interests , while those outside the charmed circle seemed , by the end of the decade , to have acquiesced in their exclusion . |
| 25 | His territorial reordering of the 1470s had apparently been a great success , creating a nexus of trusted associates prepared to work in the crown 's interests , while those outside the charmed circle seemed , by the end of the decade , to have acquiesced in their exclusion . |
| 26 | Their attempt to whip up opposition to him when news of Stony Stratford reached London had proved abortive and since then they had apparently been a spent force . |
| 27 | Their attempt to whip up opposition to him when news of Stony Stratford reached London had proved abortive and since then they had apparently been a spent force . |
| 28 | Nevertheless , around one in two Germans in both the American and the British Zones — and a percentage on the increase — thought that National Socialism had basically been a good idea , badly carried out , and were far more favourably disposed to it than to communism . |
| 29 | He was philosophical , not to say laid back about the inconvenience of being called out unnecessarily at the end of what had already been a long day . |
| 30 | There had already been a violent expression of xenophobic sentiment earlier in the year when China 's football team failed to qualify for the World Cup . |