Example sentences of "[was/were] try [to-vb] [art] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | If they were to try to give an answer to the question at the head of this section , they would probably try to give a general account of factors which encourage or discourage chickens from crossing roads . |
| 2 | If I were to try to explain the little I understood about alchemy it would run through my fingers like water . |
| 3 | If you were to try to see a top specimen of every breed at Crufts you would have to attend on all four days and walk a good couple of miles ! |
| 4 | Imagine if Mr Osborne were to try to sell the concept of milk , eggs or , heaven forbid , blue cheese to the British for the first time — how would you rate his chances ? |
| 5 | And all the lies that I told you were to try to escape the lie that was my life . |
| 6 | The sense of effort in his conversation staggered her , and she watched him with pity , for he laboured as though he were to try to write a sonnet , and all the while the conversation was predestined , unnecessary , a mere coin of payment . |
| 7 | If they were to try to maintain the parity of sterling against gold ( which was in accordance with their own instincts as well as with the views of most of their advisors , although not of Keynes ) they needed substantial foreign credits and they were unlikely to get these without welfare economies which would disrupt the Cabinet and its parliamentary support . |
| 8 | The Edinburgh Evening News picked up the point during the dispute and commented that " the old story of the men 's dislike to machinery appears in this dispute just as it was with the engineers " , 25 Whatever the reason or reasons , the men 's unwillingness to handle the machines led directly to the situation of the late 1900s in which Edinburgh master printers were trying to counter the threat of London and southern firms by combining both the employment of women and the use of machines , thus posing a double threat of a new kind to the male compositor , and inspiring a more determined resistance from the latter than had been seen during the previous thirty-odd years . |
| 9 | They were trying to earn a decent living as human beings . |
| 10 | A doctor who 's just returned from helping victims of the civil war in Somalia has been describing how the surgeon next to him was shot in the operating theatre as they were trying to save a patient 's life . |
| 11 | Meantime the British were trying to evaluate the seriousness of American proposals for decolonization or for international trusteeships as staging posts on the road from colony to self-government and independence . |
| 12 | I 'm sure they 're the nicest guys in the world , but I was at the MTV awards in America when they were trying to do a soundcheck , and they could n't do a song because their tapes were n't working . |
| 13 | You may still be able to emphasize the division by decorative changes , to give your dining area its own atmosphere , as you would if you were trying to divide a simple rectangular room . |
| 14 | A few enthusiasts within the midst of the crowd were trying to dance the Eightsome Reel , which in the circumstances was a little like trying to stage a boxing match in a telephone box ; not totally impossible , just pointless . |
| 15 | An official report by the National Human Rights Commission accused Morán of ignoring repeated requests from the local federal police to stop his soldiers firing at the agents who were trying to intercept an aircraft later discovered to be carrying some 360 kg of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico . |
| 16 | Clare Short , Labour MP for Ladywood , who raised the issue in the Commons in January , said : ‘ I think the West Midlands Police were trying to brush the matter under the carpet and it was only pressure from MPs and the media that made them do anything . ’ |
| 17 | And if you cast your minds way back to Tuesday you will remember that what I said was that the Americans were trying to create a system of limited government er and yet one which er protected the liberties of individuals not all individuals , not black individuals especially but of individuals , this was the rhetoric of the time and the main device that they invented to do this was something called the separation of powers and they argued that , where political power is concentrated , the potential for abuse is greater so that where executive and legislative powers are held in the same hands , as they are in our system of government , the , there is more prospect of government encroaching upon the rights of individuals . |
| 18 | Under normal circumstances , understudies would be expected to attend all the rehearsals to familiarise themselves with the production , but , because Alex and Charles knew the play so well , they were given a dispensation to take most of the first week off , which would save both them and their replacements the embarrassment of the early stumbling rehearsals while the newcomers were trying to memorise the lines . |
| 19 | By " special constructions " we mean in particular cumulative lists of adjectives as in ( 12 ) , where , however , the order may be explained by the quite general if ill-defined tendency to leave " heavy " constituents to the latest possible point , as in ( 13 ) : ( 12 ) policies foreign , social and educational ( 13 ) that salesman has just come back who kept getting in the way when you were trying to vaccinate the ewes last week Postnominal associatives may also just possibly be admitted in constructions expressing sharp opposition : ( 14 ) scientists nuclear but not biological The latter type , however , is at best questionable ; and , as a good general rule , we may say that associative adjectives do not normally occur in postnominal position . |
| 20 | They were trying to tame the process that gives the hydrogen bomb its devastating power-the same process that ‘ fuels ’ the Sun and the stars . |
| 21 | The debate was fast and furious , with the city workers fighting for better conditions in the factories being strongly supported by the philanthropists , who themselves were trying to preserve the landscape . |
| 22 | The others were trying to drive the protesters away , and a fight seemed likely to break out at any minute , until a pair of uniformed police constables appeared , and stood watching them from the other side of the street . |
| 23 | It has very much the same facilities as Delta Five , but is single-user rather than allowing several people to work on the same data , and also has a lower limit on the number of records , transaction files , and so on ; nothing that would really present a problem , unless you were trying to use the system for a fairly large system , in which case you should be using Delta Five . |
| 24 | OFFICIALS last night were trying to stop a ball-tampering scandal souring India 's ‘ Friendship Tour ’ of South Africa . |
| 25 | ‘ Sergeant Morris and I were trying to stop the bleeding when you came . ’ |
| 26 | We were trying to put a finger on what it is that humans and moles and earthworms and airliners and watches have in common with each other , but not with blancmange , or Mont Blanc , or the moon . |
| 27 | Two uniforms were trying to put an extendable ladder up to the skylight — God knows where it had come from — over the bath without actually having to look at the body . |
| 28 | She looked back once , and the March Hare and the Hatter were trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot . |
| 29 | Essentially , they were trying to examine the progress , or indeed lack of progress , of the immigrant newcomers as they tried to settle into this physical and social landscape . |
| 30 | Well we were trying to remember the lines to that and she came in and for about half an hour she gave a rendition . |