Example sentences of "had been [v-ing] [prep] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | This time there was no mistaking the command , but , short of trying out one of the manoeuvres she had been learning in a regular martial arts class , there was n't much she could do about it . |
| 2 | The latter manifests itself as smooth , waxy blobs on fins and skin , making the fish look as though it had been swimming under a dripping candle . |
| 3 | He spun the radio tuner at random , to leave no evidence for prying eyes that he had been listening to a foreign station . |
| 4 | The wild boar had been hiding behind a large and actually rather unconvincing bush for a hundred years or so . |
| 5 | But in his heart he knew that he had been speaking to a troubled spirit , a spirit that had something terrible to confess . |
| 6 | Dr Hadley , who had asked the questions , ceased to play with the two-toned ball pen he had been using as a remote muscle of his tongue . |
| 7 | Obviously a tall , long-legged person will need a big horse ; I recently sold a 17.3hh gelding to a man of six foot eight who had been looking for a long time ! |
| 8 | I had been looking for a full-length piece to do anyway and I was also attracted to the idea of working with a ballet company . ’ |
| 9 | If Philip had been looking for a pale , sickly , ragged and possibly fettered prisoner , Harry would be a considerable shock to him . |
| 10 | Amid the protests to date , perhaps the most telling line has come from Newtownards woman Phyllis Bibby whose petition demanding urgent changes in the system had been meeting with a poor response . |
| 11 | When I was eighteen I came in contact with the Catholic Crusade which was a rather left wing Christian Socialist Organization and I found that their attitude to problems contained the answers for which I had been searching for a good many years tell me when you want me to raise something . |
| 12 | Sophie 's voice dipped in disappointment , as if she had been hoping for a graphic account of overturned furniture and blood on the walls . |
| 13 | I know Martinho had been hoping for a religious programme . |
| 14 | Fifty miles south-west of the railway line bomb , 13 Platoon of 6 UDR reported in for duty at 0600 ; they had been hoping for a quiet day , in order to catch up on some training . |
| 15 | The embattled Chancellor had been hoping for a public show of loyalty from the Prime Minister . |
| 16 | The group had been drinking at a nearby pub in Uckington , Glos . |
| 17 | Mrs O had been chatting to a close friend for over an hour . |
| 18 | As the door closed , Zen let out a breath he realized he had been holding for a long time . |
| 19 | The girl , who had been clinging to a third-floor window ledge , fell just as firemen were about to grab her . |
| 20 | Howard had , after a quick tour of the TARDIS , retired to his office with a brandy bottle he had been saving for a special occasion . |
| 21 | Half of the salary disappeared in mess fees and for the headquarter 's servants , but Sharpe still felt rich , and it was a far better reward than the two shillings and ninepence a day that he had been receiving as a half-pay lieutenant . |
| 22 | The fact was that for many years she and her father had been living with a dangerous illusion ; and the illusion was that they were entirely virtuous in their endeavours , entirely on the angels ' side . |
| 23 | Vesa had been living in a small apartment in the Mids since their aunt had died a year back . |
| 24 | She looked back at him and smiled gently , and he saw that she had been writing in a workman-like leather-bound notebook . |
| 25 | The Dean crowd and their successors had been smoking as a regular habit ten years earlier but only now , at the height of the Vietnam crisis , when the futility of the war was beginning to dawn with the return of disillusioned young soldiers prepared at last to tell the truth , were drugs beginning to appear on the American campus scene and in London streets in any volume . |
| 26 | One fishing vessel that we had been watching for a long period had more than one narrow escape from detection by British controls , but was finally turned back by Dutch customs patrols shortly after leaving a Continental port with a cargo of immigrants on board bound for the UK . |
| 27 | Although the Bingham report made serious criticisms of the bank , it had been dealing with a unique situation . |
| 28 | It was five races into the championship before it was discovered Jonny had been driving with a broken chassis , which made it impossible to get his car to handle properly . |
| 29 | The restructuring approach tended to focus more on detailed investigation of what had been happening in a small number of cases , in a particular industry perhaps . |
| 30 | It was in that frame of mind that I moved into the Olympic year indoor season , saying , as I had been doing for a long time , ‘ In ‘ 88 , I 'll graduate ! ’ |