Example sentences of "had been [v-ing] [art] [noun pl] [prep] " in BNC.
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| 1 | In Switzerland , which had 36,000 political asylum requests in 1990 ( and 17 per cent of whose residents were non-nationals ) , the government had been tightening the rules since February 1991 . |
| 2 | Writers , poets and bards had been telling the stories for centuries but it was not until the Victorians that a visual interpretation was recorded and that was essentially romantic and ill-informed . |
| 3 | It was now three in the afternoon , and the offensive odour had been plaguing the neighbours since 10.30 in the morning . |
| 4 | The ghillies had been gathering the herds into the area for days . |
| 5 | It was then Gedanken realized that all along she had been hearing the voices of the beetles over a loudspeaker . |
| 6 | Five of the nine practices had been collecting the types of data required by the regional health authority for several years , and all of the practices had computer systems in operation before the preparation period . |
| 7 | She had been fastening the buttons at the shoulder of Thomas 's elephant-patterned pyjamas , but all sense of co-ordination suddenly seemed to vanish and her fingers fumbled in vain . |
| 8 | While Charles had been summoning the clans to Glenfillan Sir John Cope , 100 miles [ 160 km ] away , as the crow flew , in Edinburgh — though far further even by Wade 's splendid new roads — had been making his counter-preparations . |
| 9 | I happened to see Sir John Woods [ Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade ] tonight and he told me that Sir Stafford Cripps had been reading the minutes of Cabinet committees during his absence [ in India , where he had been for nearly four months trying to reach a settlement which would lead to independence ] and had been depressed by the amount of time and energy taken up in the Ministerial Committees with the discussion of quite minor matters which individual Ministers ought to settle in their discretion . |
| 10 | He had been reading the notes of Wittgenstein , he said , who before his death had been working on the relation between the private , sensuous experience of colour and the universal language of colour words with which we appear to be able to communicate it . |
| 11 | We had been reading the poems of a Greek poet in French translation together . |
| 12 | As a result , Mackensen was freed to attack the northern region of Serbia ; and Bulgaria , which had been watching the fortunes of war , anxious to identify the winning side , joined the Central Powers on 6 September 1915 . |
| 13 | Ambulance spokesman Richard Oswick said the girl 's father had been lighting the fireworks at the back of the house in Blisworth Street , Seaforth . |
| 14 | I HAD BEEN making the rounds of the Sacrifice Poles the day we heard my brother had escaped . |
| 15 | I had been paying the fees of the home a month in advance , but when explaining about the social security payments , I sent two months ' fees in advance to cover , as I thought , any delay . |
| 16 | Hunt had recently been down on his luck and one day , whilst trying to interest publishers in his drawings , had been walking the streets with a portfolio under his arm when a taxi drew up with Francis Bacon inside . |
| 17 | The idea of such a journey came about , I should point out , from a most kind suggestion put to me by Mr Farraday himself one afternoon almost a fortnight ago , when I had been dusting the portraits in the library . |
| 18 | Philip Morris itself had been testing the effects of discounting in Oregon . |
| 19 | While John Paul Jones had been captivating the ladies of Paris the French government had been preparing for the most serious attack on England since the Dutch incursion into the Medway . |
| 20 | Whenever possible he had been forcing the lords of Aquitaine to acknowledge that they held their " honours " , their counties , viscounties and other seigneuries , not as independent lordships but as fiefs , for which they owed the Duke homage . |
| 21 | This high moorland village is an industrial settlement developed early in the nineteenth century to house lead-miners and their families employed by the Blackett family , which had been exploiting the deposits since 1729 . |
| 22 | The Home Secretary , Sir Samuel Hoare , noted that any influx of refugees from the continent might bring together the political extremes — the fascists who had been attacking the Jews for three years and the communists and other left-wing elements who might argue that Jewish refugees were taking away Gentile employment . |
| 23 | The Secte Rouge guards had been charging the Marines with their machetes , to little effect , though a couple of Marines had gone down . |
| 24 | Probably , she had been studying the figures with too much intensity , and now she needed a break . |