Example sentences of "[conj] [pers pn] had been an " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | I could see she was an unfit woman , and although I was resolved not to tell anyone now of my qualifications , except that I had been an ARP worker , I did try to be as helpful to her as I could . |
| 2 | The two ladies had each paid 500 dollars for the privilege of a ten-minute consultation , during which one was told that she had been a quartz crystal in a former life while the other was informed that she had been an E flat ! |
| 3 | He suspected that she had been an embarrassment to the authorities and that , in the conditions which then prevailed , what mattered was whether they wished to have such a person interned and not whether she had been subversive . |
| 4 | No matter that she had n't understood the broken phrases gasped from Rune 's lips as he had devoured her with his kisses ; she knew instinctively that they had been an expression of his desire for her in that sweet moment of culmination . |
| 5 | Hence CI5 's involvement , although it had been an assignment with an only partially successful outcome . |
| 6 | Wilkins also told magistrates that he had n't deliberately tipped his drink over the bar but that it had been an accident . |
| 7 | All agreed that it had been an exciting week , sometimes emotional and demanding but in the end enjoyable and full of the message of joy and peace . |
| 8 | But solicitor Ray Tooth , who represented the wife in the £1 million split , said yesterday that it had been an exceptional case . |
| 9 | But as soon as he cursed himself for being taken in last night by Isabel 's distress , two insistent memories shook his belief that it had been an act put on for his benefit : the way she had clung fiercely to his hand when they had passed the dungeons , her grip almost painfully strong , and the stricken expression on her face when he had ordered her to strip . |
| 10 | Gorbachev said that it had been an " event of enormous importance for our bilateral relations and in the context of world politics " and that one could now speak of a " new phase of co-operation " between the USA and the Soviet Union , describing Bush as " the kind of person to do business with " . |
| 11 | I could see that it had been an upsetting experience . |
| 12 | At the ‘ 19th ’ all prizes were presented by Captain , Danny Sproull where everyone agreed that it had been an enjoyable outing . |
| 13 | Hon W.L. MacKenzie King , Prime Minister of Canada , admitted shyly to Edna Jacques that he had been an ardent fan for over 20 years , and Mrs Nellie McClung , the Canadian novelist , said to her ‘ You have the gift , Edna dear , to ring bells in the hearts of the people ’ . |
| 14 | He could not deny that he had been an unfaithful husband , although he was gentleman enough to keep the names of his various inamoratas to himself . |
| 15 | His resignation followed persistent allegations that he had been an informer for the " Stasi " ( the East German state security police ) during 1981-88 . |
| 16 | To establish immunity it would be necessary for the valuer to show a " formulated dispute " ( see 15.5 ) had been put to him to resolve in a judicial manner ; or , in other words , that he had been an arbitrator . |
| 17 | My personal life had been a disaster : I had had a lousy relationship with my mother ; been frightened of my father ; from time to time my marriage had been close to the rocks and I had been an uncaring father . |
| 18 | By the time I left his office , I felt as if I had been an established outside-left for years , ’ Bastin later recalled . |
| 19 | It turned out that she and her husband were experts on reincarnation and ran a sort of reincarnation centre in Switzerland and she had been an Egyptian princess — before , you know — and written books about it . |
| 20 | That would have caused outrage if she had been an infant , since Zuwaya do not slap other people 's children . |
| 21 | If she had been an ordinary teacher , trying to teach an ordinary sedentary subject like history or Latin , she would have been mercilessly flouted and mocked , but as it was she managed to get by . |
| 22 | If she had been an adult the position would have been different . |
| 23 | If you had been an out-of-work farm hand near Inverness , or near Dumfries , why might you have been one of many who moved to Glasgow in the last century ? |
| 24 | It had been my first alpine climb , and it had been an eye-opener . |
| 25 | I remember that when Philip and I first made our way through London to a shop which was depicted in an advertisement , in spite of the crowds on either hand all along our route , in spite of the full directions of our elders , we were as much elated by our achievement as if it had been an arduous discovery made after a journey in a desert . |
| 26 | We do know that , if it had been an idea seriously mooted , they drew back . |
| 27 | Women who I had attacked for bringing up boy children wanted to know if it had been an immaculate conception or simply parthenogenesis , and what was I going to do with it if it were a boy ? |
| 28 | If it had been an illusion , then other illusions lay ahead , a hall of mirrors , a series of mirages . |
| 29 | I mean if it had been an electrician 's job and |
| 30 | But if it had been an unusually intelligent bird — an escaped mynah bird , perhaps , or a parrot that had been blown several thousand miles off course by very strong winds — ; it would have thought : |