Example sentences of "[noun] had [been] [v-ing] [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | ‘ He said he thought his mummy had been having car trouble because she had n't turned up . |
| 2 | Andrew Garthwaite had been playing pool with his attacker and thought at first it was a joke . |
| 3 | When she found that she was pregnant , she turned to her older sister for help , and since the O'Dells knew that Mr Marriner had been paying court to Moira , they assumed he was responsible for her condition . |
| 4 | Six of the escapers had been facing death sentences . |
| 5 | Finding that the Middlesbrough , Shields and Seaham branches had been accumulating funds , the Sunderland officials demanded that any surplus cash should be handed over to them at head office , threatening , according to Wilson 's account , " drastic action " if they failed to do so . |
| 6 | The SAAF had been operating Dakotas since June 1943 , with a total of 58 on charge , flying principally from southern Africa to North Africa and then into Italy . |
| 7 | On Friday night Lord Dersingham had been playing patience . |
| 8 | On Feb. 6 , with the agreement of the authorities in the Georgian autonomous republic of Abkhazia , government troops established control in Sukhumi , where rallies in support of the deposed President had been taking place daily . |
| 9 | To consolidate his hold on Georgia , Alexander had been moving east to the Persian-controlled shore of the south-western Caspian and west to the Turkish-controlled shore of the south-eastern Black Sea . |
| 10 | Customs ' spokesman John Barber said that excise verification teams in East Anglia had been investigating people who brought goods back from the Continent and sold them . |
| 11 | Meantime , the Parents ' Action Committee had been writing letters to Councillors as well . |
| 12 | Owen knew his parents had been having aromatherapy massage , so I think it made him feel grown-up and important . |
| 13 | The Revolution had taken place , the Revolutioners had been singing songs , and one of the people present at this dinner , this banquet , said , what we need is something different , something new , we need a new war song . |
| 14 | Dr Simon Newell , in charge of the neonatal unit , said the couple had been trying for a baby for seven years and Mrs Vince had been undergoing fertility treatment for five years . |
| 15 | Maggie had been stewing meat , and now she rolled out pastry with a heavy glass roller like the one Mrs Martin had used in the Bradfords ' kitchen . |
| 16 | Both companies had been using BR 's Railfreight distribution network after the cessation of Speedlink in 1991 and subsequent collapse of TigerRail operations . |
| 17 | Pease had been taking part in a march through the capital , Lima , when the officer shot him at close range with bird shot . |
| 18 | Dr. Ray had been watching Patrick unblinkingly as he delivered his hammer blows . |
| 19 | Talks between the government and the ANC had been taking place against a background of mounting violence , particularly in Natal and the townships of the Transvaal , between supporters of the ANC and of Inkatha [ for eventual Mandela-Buthelezi meeting in January 1991 see p. 37951 ] . |
| 20 | Emma Osterfield from Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire had been drawing sketches while drinking from a bottle . |
| 21 | Ever since they had started the journey Christopher had been chewing barley sugar . |
| 22 | A woman who knew her told the court the girl had been abusing solvents for some time . |
| 23 | A pretty Israeli girl had been selling magazines in the little paper-shop on the corner . |
| 24 | Then , when I returned to the shrine — to Oak Lodge — I realized that the Keeton girl had been making contact with me . ’ |
| 25 | Closures of railway lines had been taking place for many years , accelerated by the growing availability of cars in the 1950s . |
| 26 | Barnes had been burning leaves by the haha , the bonfire still smouldered , the smoke drifting over the paddock . |
| 27 | The motorist had been travelling Northbound on the M Six near the Walsall and Wolverhampton turnoff . |
| 28 | Thus when there was demand for training youth in drama the holder of the purse , the government , turned for advice not to educationalists , not to speech and drama experts ( although there was some overlap here ) , but to a small group of charismatic figures who for decades had been promoting community drama of one sort or another , promoting it by giving advice , by running courses , by setting up drama libraries of play-texts , by making links with professional theatre , by popularising competitive festivals . |
| 29 | The conurbations had been losing population relative to the smaller ‘ free-standing ’ cities , and almost al the ‘ cores ’ of the metropolitan areas had experienced absolute or relative population shifts to their metropolitan rings . |
| 30 | For some years the growing number of bank collapses had been putting pressure on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ( FDIC ) , the government body which guaranteed the safety of private savers ' deposits in most , but not all , of the federally approved banks . |