Example sentences of "[vb past] a few years " in BNC.

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1 But I think the political climate on that changed a few years ago , when there was the big influx of heroin onto the market … .
2 Salmon , who was an intimate friend of Picasso 's at this time , described a few years later his restless state of mind : ‘ Picasso was unsettled .
3 One classic er case that only occurred a few years ago and it was way before bonfire night , but erm , people working from home to try and make a little bit of pin money , a young lady had taken on the task of putting sparklers into five into a little bag for a particular manufacturer .
4 Kevin tried a few years ago and failed this time … he aims to make history … and if he does we 'll be there …
5 Child benefit is the only benefit which is in fact available to women , even then the government tried a few years ago to change that and to make it paid to the man .
6 They have a very special significance , and how I wish I had known how to press flowers when I was given my first red roses by my husband , but unfortunately I learnt a few years too late !
7 If anyone deserved a few years in an open prison it was Beamish .
8 Mr Creme believes Christ has already come again — came a few years ago actually — and is now residing in the Asian community in London , waiting for a more receptive attitude from the press before He shows Himself on worldwide television , when ‘ He wo n't actually speak , but His thoughts , His ideas , His call to humanity , will take place silently , telepathically . ’
9 In 1752 Horace Walpole instructed his brother , Ned , to collect tea seed ; Gilbert White came a few years later to discuss difficulties over growing melons at Selborne ; and Charles Hatton selected two pots of passion flower , ‘ lusty and strong ’ in April 1760 .
10 One of the sharpest recessions came a few years after the Conservative government , sensitive to the enormous profits made in earlier years , had imposed ( in 1963 ) a variable levy rising to 45 per cent on the companies ' advertising revenue ( as distinct from their profits ) .
11 But she liked the money , and the new house , and the new dresses — and the six fields of apple trees and the big farm north of Stratford that came a few years later .
12 Broderick has faced more of a problem , since it seemed a few years back that he had stopped ageing .
13 To get proof that these are not ‘ our ’ birds is not easy , but is illustrated by an incident which happened a few years ago .
14 Modern plastics and silicones have made pipe connections so easy : no more messing about with tarred hemp and mortar , which inevitably cracked and leaked a few years later .
15 The new calendar , now known as the ‘ Young-Avestan calendar ’ appears to have been adopted in the reign of Cambyses ' great successor Darius I. The most thorough and plausible investigation of the date of its introduction is that made a few years ago by the distinguished historian of ancient astronomy the late Willy Hartner of Frankfurt University .
16 In a survey on shopping which I made a few years ago one of my student interviewers was questioning an old lady about the grocer 's shop she used .
17 This was typical ‘ normal science ’ — the very necessary filling-in operation which had to follow the categorically original discoveries made a few years earlier by the chief .
18 One of the wonder boys we sold a few years back was Ian Snodin , to Everton .
19 Certainly not as well as her books sold a few years ago .
20 He contrasted the " long rearguard action " that EC car makers fought a few years ago against tougher emission controls with the " very encouraging " willingness by industrial producers and users of chlorofluorocarbons ( CFCs ) to phase these substances out on a largely voluntary basis .
21 you got a few years back .
22 The survey — ‘ mapping the universe ’ — which Geller and Huchra began a few years ago is not yet complete but they have seen enough to conclude that ‘ the size of the largest structures we detect is limited only by the extent of the survey ’ .
23 There followed a few years as a ‘ journeyman ’ caddy , industrious years but without great success .
24 There followed a few years when the situation looked bright .
25 There followed a few years of growth with turnover increasing from £11 million 1982 to £18 million in 1987 .
26 John returned a few years later , but he was now an old man and the moving spirit seems to have been his daughter Virginia , who carried out experiments in the breeding of silkworms at Little Gidding for the benefit of the American colony .
27 They were , and the Pryces spent a few years in married bliss before the third Lady Pryce died in 1748 .
28 Cheyney passed from Sandhurst into the army , buying a commission in a regiment which was ordered to India , where he spent a few years in inactive service .
29 I spent a few years on The Scotsman and then to Thomson House to join The Guardian soon after it dropped the ‘ Manchester ’ from its title and started printing in London .
30 On leaving school , she spent a few years working in the British Transport Police .
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