Example sentences of "had been [to-vb] the [adj] [noun] " in BNC.
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1 | The aim of the programme had been to divide the big farms into smaller plots and to redistribute the land to the workers , but it had bred uncertainty among landowners and entrepreneurs many of whom , unwilling to part with their property , had delayed investment . |
2 | The father was distraught ; he had appealed to the Prime Minister , had been to see the Foreign Secretary , he had been in fact everywhere , and finally asked Max Rayne whether he could come to see me . |
3 | The basic logic of her programme since 1979 had been to reverse the main lines of her country 's history as it had developed since the Second World War . |
4 | The delay had been to give the second team time to gain position . |
5 | One of the more pleasant surprises , on a protracted visit to The Towers in January , had been to meet the new bride at the Hall . |
6 | Franco believed that one of General Primo de Rivera 's mistakes had been to establish the provisional nature of his regime at the outset . |
7 | There had been only one obvious course of action — and that had been to raise the necessary sums by selling the family estate . |
8 | While the combined effect of a number of cases had been to limit the audi alteram partem principle , it would be misleading to say that it had been wholly forgotten . |
9 | The loan had been to buy the second-hand Sierra , and then had been topped up to cover repairs required by the M.O.T. ; and then increased again when Sara 's Mini had just died on her , expired in the middle of the village with 110,000 miles on the tombstone . |
10 | Propagandists could always argue that the fact that so many misfortunes had befallen England since the Revolution confirmed how wrong it had been to dethrone the rightful sovereign . |