Example sentences of "had been [v-ing] [prep] a [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | It might have been a delayed reaction to the drugs I had been taking for an operation I 'd recently had on my foot , but this seemed unlikely . |
| 2 | The blue-tit that had been swinging on a bramble , singing " Heigh , ho , go-and-get-another-bit-of-moss , " stopped his acrobatics and flew into the wood . |
| 3 | Mona , the distinguished elderly lady in the tea-gown with lace at the neck , had been listening with a disapproval balanced by her evident affection for both Charity and Peregrine . |
| 4 | One is left wondering whether it was a dream or one really had been listening to a man whose clothes and surroundings were obviously of little importance but who knew more Latin and Greek than one ever had , could quote the classics and poetry , would have one lost in the depths of philosophy , someone who was probably in a Gaelic world of his own and was translating into English for the benefit of his listener although the learning had largely been gathered in that language . |
| 5 | I had been listening to a lot of songs in very different styles , quite consciously , to try to get a little more inspiration for when we went into the studio . |
| 6 | The 31-year-old victim 's wife , who had been drifting on an anchor line 10ft below their charter boat , was uninjured . |
| 7 | It happened that the king of the vookodlaks had been hiding behind a tree , listening while the sun-god talked to the boys . |
| 8 | And , it 's not a text but perhaps a verse that we could use as a , as a springboard is verse twenty seven , and it says at this point his disciples came and they marvelled that he had been speaking with a woman ! |
| 9 | If she had been speaking to a school friend she would have called Brian Daddy but this was not acceptable to Jasper . |
| 10 | Daniel had been officiating at a funeral . |
| 11 | Of course , compared to what they had been producing with a typewriter and some rub-down lettering , the desktop publishing system was producing wonderful material — it just did n't conform to any of the professional standards . |
| 12 | The foundation of a national Board of Education signalled the acceptance within the official culture of a need for policies that would co-ordinate an efficient and fully national system of education , and also allowed the voices of dons who had been calling for a transformation of the traditional curriculum to carry more weight than ever before . |
| 13 | If I shifted my weight on to the shoulder these mugs had been using as a football , the pain took away my thoughts from the throbbing ache in my head . |
| 14 | The jangling of his friend 's bells and chains , which he had been using as an aid for navigation , had ceased abruptly . |
| 15 | If I had been looking for a lover — I admit my husband 's fortunes were not at their brightest , and my friendship with the Philosopher was a little turbulent at that time — then I should not have chosen Gustave . |
| 16 | The health authority had been looking for a site since 1989 but found difficulty in obtaining suitable premises in terms of locality , accessibility and size of ground floor accommodation . |
| 17 | He had been looking for a place to live . |
| 18 | The ruling Liberal Democratic Party had been looking for an excuse to reward its friends in the building industry for their financial support . |
| 19 | He was inclined to believe he had been looking for an excuse to ring her , which was foolish because he did not need an excuse . |
| 20 | Mrs Hiscocks , a divorcee , had been looking after a 650-acre wildlife sanctuary at Abuko for Mr Brewer , while he was in the UK for medical treatment . |
| 21 | I had caught an eider duck that had been sheltering on a lochan and was flying back with it against the wind when I grew tired . |
| 22 | He seemed eager to talk , as if he had been searching for a listener for some time . |
| 23 | The victim was slumped over a freezer where he had been searching for a gas leak . |
| 24 | They had been thinking of a job in Parma to which I would commute daily ; but this one sounded very interesting , something after my own heart . |
| 25 | For over two years the ILP had been moving towards a position where it could no longer work within the limitations of Parliamentary discipline and electoral necessity . |
| 26 | His thought had been moving towards an idea of nature , not unlike that found in some Stoic philosophers , as a complex of processes subject to their own natural law . |
| 27 | They had been moving in a group , or trying to : actually , they had straggled widely at times . |
| 28 | The effect of relatively few firearms had been devastating against a warrior race with no previous experience of them . |
| 29 | I had been trying for a year to obtain some black Amazon wood for my Discus tank , but my local dealers did not stock it . |
| 30 | Mr and Mrs Allen had been trying for a child for 19 years and were overjoyed when Laura was born . |