Example sentences of "had been [v-ing] [adv] [prep] [art] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The only way this impinged on the message Macmillan had been taking up to the generals in the front-line was that they might now have to prepare even more urgently for military operations to reinforce allied policy . |
| 2 | I tried all the channels from 1 to 40 in case the hijackers had been messing about with the rig in the truck , but still got nothing . |
| 3 | Carol had been gazing gloomily at the lake . |
| 4 | I put the phone down , wondering how many people had been listening in on the extensions , and went back into my room . |
| 5 | The deputy was a Socialist , he had been speaking out against the old work conditions that were being reimposed . |
| 6 | And I already had Jackie because Jackie had been speaking earlier on the tapes . |
| 7 | He had been pointing out of the window and asking me if I liked the weather or the colour of the cows . |
| 8 | At the time I honestly never gave a thought to why Billy Tuckett had been poncing around on the roof in the wee small hours or why he 'd chosen Sunil 's bathroom to fall through . |
| 9 | If gaunt-face had been looking up at the Clubroom windows in the hope of seeing Filmer — or of Filmer seeing him — maybe Filmer would come down to talk to him and maybe I could photograph them both together , which might one day prove useful . |
| 10 | One moment he had been looking forward to a happy and wealthy retirement and now , minutes later , he was a condemned criminal with only a few hours left to live . |
| 11 | And although she 'd been sad to be leaving her family behind , she had been looking forward to a few weeks ' holiday and then — a new job , a new life . |
| 12 | 30 staff and friends from Earlys Blankets in Witney had been looking forward to a 3-day holiday at EuroDisney . |
| 13 | 30 staff and friends from Earlys Blankets in Witney had been looking forward to a 3-day holiday at EuroDisney . |
| 14 | Friends say they had been looking forward to the holiday for months . |
| 15 | Rogers had been looking out of a window . |
| 16 | The twins , David and Michael , had been prowling about in the front garden waiting for the sight of Belinda 's car , and as soon as she stepped out into the driveway and came up the path to the house they raced ahead of her inside to relay the news of her arrival , without even saying hello to her . |
| 17 | They had been moving steadily through a very thick part of the forest in which it was impossible to maintain a constant direction for more than a few paces . |
| 18 | Levels of nitrates in tap water had been rising slowly over the past decade , most of it leaching into groundwater from farmers fields , where it 's used as a fertilizer . |
| 19 | He said that credit costs had been rising partly as a reaction to global inflationary fears , but that the current high interest rates were necessary and appropriate and were a way of keeping inflation in check . |
| 20 | Breeze snatched up the first thing she could find — her own mackintosh , which she had been wearing earlier in the day — and with one swift movement covered that smouldering sleeve with the thick material . |
| 21 | The highest count in the alcohol group was 14.8% in a chronic alcoholic aged 49 years who had been drinking heavily since the age of 15 years . |
| 22 | A British Transport police spokesman said : ‘ Fans had been drinking heavily before the accident and would have been fairly merry . ’ |
| 23 | He had been drinking steadily since the early morning . |
| 24 | He had a really nice family — he had a very good relationship with his wife — he was very bright , he enjoyed life , he read a lot , he had been teaching up until a month before hospitalization , and he had the will to live … |
| 25 | Englishmen had been settling overseas for a century and a half but their colonies had been inhabited by people who , apart from the slaves who got no choice in the matter , had no particular difficulty in committing themselves to being loyal to King George : Englishmen , Scotsmen , Irishmen , or Germans would accept the King without question , and the Dutch of New York and the Acadians of Nova Scotia were almost the only people who had ever been asked to make a serious change of allegiance , which had been harder for the Acadians because of religious differences . |
| 26 | Sir Hugo had been riding just behind the hounds . |
| 27 | Seeing Anthea each day would be a constant reminder , and neither woman could deny that the masks of civility each had been holding up to the other for months were now trampled underfoot . |
| 28 | But he found that the job that awaited him there was several rungs lower than the job he had been holding down in the UK . |
| 29 | In their defence the party leadership could argue that they had been hampered by the lack of a parliamentary majority ; the choice had been hanging on by the skin of one 's teeth or of giving up and holding an election in the face of adverse opinion polls . |
| 30 | Jessica had been getting out of the house for a while since just after the youngest of the boys had begun at school . |