Example sentences of "[was/were] [verb] by a " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | ‘ Well , like I said , I got t'thinkin' about how our Triad friend would go about gittin' himself an ’ his goon squad clear , if the buildin' wuz surrounded by a hostile force . |
| 2 | The Middle Ages were punctuated by a series of earlier revivals usually centred round courts like those of Charlemagne and Frederick II . |
| 3 | The engines were developed by a commercial company with the backing of a $700,000 from the California Energy Commission . |
| 4 | On 2 September , troops opened fire when barricades were erected by a group protesting against a sharp increase in the cost of living and the government 's failure to convene a national conference to discuss the country 's political future . |
| 5 | Groups of questions on similar tasks were prefaced by a statement of their nature ( e.g. " The next two questions are about change from 50p " ) . |
| 6 | All four of the white Los Angeles police officers , whose acquittal in the Rodney King beating case sparked several days of rioting in the city in late April and early May [ see p. 38894 ] , were indicted by a grand jury on Aug. 4 on federal charges of violating King 's civil rights . |
| 7 | Even greater passions were aroused by a spy case of absolutely no strategic significance whatever , the case of Alger Hiss , who was finally jailed in January 1950 , after two years of allegation and wild rumour . |
| 8 | Two forms of injection were arranged by a statistician who was not involved in the study . |
| 9 | From the 13th century they were inhabited by a sensitive , hardy , mountain folk full of merriment and superstition . |
| 10 | Other additional areas that are related to managerial skills , such as publicity , and industrial relations/local authority structure , were listed by a further 15% of authorities , so that this topic in general figured quite highly as one for which a considerable number of authorities perceived a need for external course provision . |
| 11 | On this day : Louis XII , King of France , married Mary Tudor , sister of Henry VIII , 1514 ; the first Luddite riots against the introduction of machinery for spinning cotton started , Manchester 1779 ; Hobart , Tasmania , was founded , 1804 ; the Universal Postal Union was founded , Rome 1875 ; the first petrol-driven motor bus began operating in London , 1899 ; the Labour government fell , 1924 ; King Alexander of Yugoslavia and Louis Barthou , French foreign minister , were assassinated by a Croatian terrorist , Marseilles 1934 ; the first London production of the musical show Porgy and Bess was presented , 1952 ; the breathalyzer test came into force in Britain , 1967 . |
| 12 | On 2nd June 1914 , The Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife , were assassinated by a Bosnian Serb and that triggered a series of events that led to the outbreak of war on 4th , August 1914 — the war that became known as The Great War . |
| 13 | Very soon , however , his natural good looks were recognized by a film producer , and by 1919 he had appeared in three short silent dramas , despite a casting card reading ‘ does not screen well ’ . |
| 14 | Consumer demand led to higher imports of manufactured goods and the inflationary pressures were checked by a credit-squeeze : the bubble of the housing market burst and jobs were lost in construction , banking and shopping . |
| 15 | They were halted by a hail of arrows from the English , they failed to break the English positions and each advancing wave of cavalry bore down on those who had gone before , leading to utter confusion and heavy losses . |
| 16 | A burly serjeant-of-arms stopped them , asked their business , and grudgingly let them through into the main courtyard where they were halted by a steward who took them up into the main hall . |
| 17 | Fear was something felt by other people when they found an unexpected lump under their arm or were mugged by a complete stranger . |
| 18 | Repeated attempts to start up a newly refitted reactor were delayed by a series of minor faults , including a small fire , insulation problems , and pump failures . |
| 19 | Louise had also confirmed Jim Miller 's assertion that the grounds were guarded by a killer pack of Dobermans , ten in number she said . |
| 20 | The prizes were guarded by a man with an automatic rifle . ’ |
| 21 | Well-concealed redoubts were guarded by a triple barrier of barbed wire , fifty yards deep . |
| 22 | Some ballets by them soon joined Beauty in the Covent Garden programmes , others were given by a newly formed second company at the Wells . |
| 23 | In follow-up tests , the same foods were given by a tube leading straight into the stomach ( thus avoiding the taste-buds ) to check whether she would still respond in the same way . |
| 24 | Details about the alleged incident were given by a prosecuting lawyer at Belfast Crown Court in the trial of three Londonderry men . |
| 25 | Parades of shabby shops , gathered like mongrel dogs on a street corner , were parted by a grim council estate , and then reassembled . |
| 26 | Bad wiring practices were compounded by a workforce which was adequate neither in size nor in skills . |
| 27 | problems raised by the non-transferable nature of social behaviour and structure were compounded by a distinction between social conventions , which were adopted wholesale , and social morality , which could hardly be transformed overnight . |
| 28 | The problems were compounded by a shortage of coal and natural gas and uncertainty over supplies of oil from the former Soviet Union . |
| 29 | Any whether worries were eased by a gradual lifting of the gloom as England went in again . |
| 30 | Initiatives on recruitment and retention of staff were highlighted by a major national campaign run jointly by the Department of Health and Nursing Times in 1988 . |