Example sentences of "[was/were] [v-ing] [verb] [pn reflx] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The institutional , legal and procedural definition of convocation had not been clear in 1307 nor was it finally resolved by 1327 : the clergy were struggling to free themselves from the enveloping quicksand of parliament , the king 's high court , and to reach the firm ground of an autonomous clerical assembly , no part of the king 's court ( with all that that implied ) and free from the intimidating presence , or intrusion , of those royal councillors who were laymen . |
| 2 | It 's almost as if they were looking to make themselves the most hated and hunted men on earth . ’ |
| 3 | Not when you think we were going to call ourselves Fleetwood Mac . ’ |
| 4 | Erm , the problem is that this should , this agenda was prepared over the Christmas period basically , and , and we started on the preparations of an economic development strategy in , in accordance with the way we 'd done it before , which was basically a strategy of what we were going to do ourselves . |
| 5 | Sounds discouraging if that 's how were going to wipe ourselves out . |
| 6 | That was the question that the Alton Carnival Committee were beginning to ask themselves , when they found that no girls had come forward to enter the 1962 Carnival Queen contest . |
| 7 | Chapman took over at Leeds at a time when professional footballers were beginning to assert themselves as an organized body of workers . |
| 8 | More than anything else in the world she wanted him to touch her again , but already some of the unadulterated pleasure was slipping away and the doubts were beginning to reassert themselves . |
| 9 | In 1850 she was noticed by the artist Walter Deverell , who asked her to sit for him and a group of young friends who were beginning to distinguish themselves as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood . |
| 10 | By the following year , as a result of mortgage and foreclosures , the manifest favouritism shown to French squatters and the pressures of population , peasants in Tonkin were having to feed themselves on average from the product of just over one-third of an acre of padi per head : in some localities barely a fifth . |
| 11 | AS THE FIRST chimes of noon from the bells of Shandon broke over the pavements and washed into the busy shops , the people of Cork halted in their step or turned from what they were doing to cross themselves and murmur the Angelus prayer . |
| 12 | With all their virtues and even ( perhaps especially ) when they were trying to enjoy themselves , they were stiff , awkward and apologetic . |
| 13 | … why am I writing all this out as if I were trying to assimilate myself to her ? |
| 14 | Tom 's head sank into his shoulders , as if he were trying to make himself invisible , but his eyes remained restlessly curious . |
| 15 | It 's thought the fire may have been started by squatters in the hotel who were trying to keep themselves warm . |
| 16 | and financial circumstances and erm , this was something of course that I had to leave to the people who were working got himself another job . |
| 17 | In some ways Donaldson realised that it was he that was actually doing all the learning-Bobo was using a vocabulary that she 'd already acquired , whilst he was struggling to adapt himself to it . |
| 18 | Meanwhile , I was struggling to unfasten myself , but just as I managed to pull my left arm free of the ropes , I felt a hundred arrows land on my free hand , and more arrows on my face and body . |
| 19 | The essential point , moreover , is that the ‘ Hooligan ’ style was recognisable to their contemporaries ( and presumably to themselves ) as a distinctive mode of attire , thus helping to form the feeling which was struggling to give itself expression in other areas , that too much freedom and affluence had been given to the working class at the turn of the century . |
| 20 | During 1914 he completed only eight portraits , tentatively and experimentally , for he was struggling to find himself , trying out different styles . |
| 21 | A half-mile away in the plantation director 's house a scratchy rendition of " Muskrat Ramble " played by Louis Armstrong and Kid Ory was struggling to make itself heard over the roar of the monsoon rains . |
| 22 | It had grounds for such fears , since it was struggling to legitimize itself as the Palestinian representative and did not wish this to be challenged by any independent local movement . |
| 23 | As Tolstoy himself concedes , in The Minister and the Massacres ( p 44 ) : Neither Gen Krasnov nor any other old emigre was seeking to extricate himself from sharing whatever fate attended those of their comrades who were in the equivocal position of being Soviet citizens . |
| 24 | Unconsciously perhaps Jeanne was seeking to free herself from her narrow and oppressively respectable bourgeois family . |
| 25 | She was deciding to devote herself to supporting him as he leapt from one peak to another . |
| 26 | During September there were signs that Jordan was attempting to distance itself from Iraq in order to restore relations with its former allies in the Gulf . |
| 27 | The hoverspeeder , its motors still idling , was attempting to wedge itself into the hole in the wall which Daak must have made with the vehicle 's front thrusters . |
| 28 | He was going to shoot himself and Little Chef , thought Daisy numbly . |
| 29 | They went into hiding immediately after , but when they heard that a warrant had been issued for their arrest , Waddell told Gentle he was going to give himself up . |
| 30 | Even if he still felt the same it was no good if I was going to drive myself mad by becoming obsessive . |