Example sentences of "when [pron] [vb mod] [verb] [be] [v-ing] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | This was the first time I had seen him surf in the flesh , but for an entire month I had contemplated him pulling fearlessly into a vicious Pipeline tube when I should have been writing lectures . |
| 2 | ‘ Your brother says you 've been pushing yourself too hard , trying to finish your degree when you should have been resting . ’ |
| 3 | ‘ In that case , tell me what you were doing modelling shorts when you should have been rehearsing with the wedding dress you 're to wear at the show . ’ |
| 4 | She took advantage with both elbows of the luxury of padded arms , and felt soothed by the warm , impersonal darkness , the bovine torpor of those around her , and her own pleased consciousness of wasting time and money when she should have been studying . |
| 5 | We have worked with the Government when we should have been working against it . |
| 6 | Members of the local Asian community ran onto the pitch to congratulate their South African hero , when they might have been supporting the Indians from the land of their ancestors . |
| 7 | A TRIAL was halted yesterday after complaints that magistrates had fallen asleep when they should have been listening to evidence . |
| 8 | She did not really care whether people listened or not ; she was interested herself in what she was saying , and she was quite happy to potter about from bench to bench watching people writing their diaries when they should have been writing up their experiments . |
| 9 | He argued that teenagers were wasting their opportunities at Dovercourt , keeping the futile hope alive that they would be adopted by rich families and lead a fine life , when they could have been using their time to constructive purpose . |
| 10 | Which is why you find extraordinary things like a Russian peregrine falcon turning up in North Cornwall , when it might have been planning to spend the winter in the Tropics . |
| 11 | Then in his fifth year at the school , when he ought to have been aiming for his school certificate which was the next and essential passport for that golden educated future , he left abruptly to work as a haberdasher 's assistant in the local Co-operative store . |
| 12 | What had gone awry , that he should have been led to this pass , and even now he felt himself following , perforce , the twists of his fortune , headlong as a fall , when he should have been steering his own course and bearing them strongly with him ? |
| 13 | Edward Nundy , 55 , of Southend , Essex , was allegedly seen at his boat when he should have been working for Car Buyer magazine . |
| 14 | The charge is that he allowed domestic inflation to get out of control and messed around with the exchange rate when he should have been applying the monetarist remedy . |
| 15 | Did you hear the one about the rabbi who sneaks out of the synagogue on Shabbos to play a secret game of golf when he should have been praying ? |
| 16 | Spent ten years writing L'Idiot de la famille when he could have been writing Maoist tracts . |
| 17 | ‘ Nevertheless , it is strange that he should keep such a sum on current account , when he could have been earning two per cent interest . ’ |
| 18 | ‘ No one … ’ began Sally-Anne passionately , thinking of all that she had seen since arriving in Vetch Street — the poor creatures in Dr Neil 's surgery , and the even poorer ones who could not afford to go there — and of Dr Neil 's own selflessness letting people off their bills , so that only the small income he still received from an aunt 's legacy allowed him to keep going at all , when he could have been revelling with Stair . |