Example sentences of "[was/were] the only thing " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The tactic used by the Commission for passing the Single European Act was to present it to the member states as if it were the only thing on offer : either take this or leave the Community . |
| 2 | It would be a mistake , however , even when the intimacy between Lewis and Tolkien was at its strongest , to believe that this was the only thing in both their lives . |
| 3 | I always thought being famous was the only thing worth doing in human life , and anything else was just perfunctory . |
| 4 | He found the research interesting , which was the only thing which made him stay , but the firm did n't own him . |
| 5 | That was the only thing he knew for certain about himself . |
| 6 | In February 1922 , Hitler told his SA that the ‘ Jewish Question ’ was the only thing that mattered , and a few months later he summed up the entire Party Programme in the one point : that no Jew could be a ‘ people 's comrade ’ . |
| 7 | The trick with the little fingers was the only thing she remembered from a piece she had once written on self-defence courses for women . |
| 8 | Nana could make a chocolate drink with cocoa beans and goat 's milk , and that was the only thing Martha could think of that was coloured like her . |
| 9 | It was the only thing on the horizon , shouldering aside achievement and sensation with attention-seeking roughness , and nothing , not conversation , wine , sexual encounters or the search for knowledge or fame could prevent it . |
| 10 | It was the only thing that could have made Sarah temporarily forget about James , and she was still awake with her thoughts when Ella 's snoring rattled to the rafters of the narrow attic room . |
| 11 | It was the only thing she 'd been wearing that had n't come away when they undressed . |
| 12 | I 've grown up hating and loving country music , too ; sometimes you just did n't want it to be there 'cos it was the only thing you 'd hear on the radio in Texas , before rock'n'roll . |
| 13 | That was the only thing which emerged clearly from the latest survey among 19,000 people in England , Wales and Scotland . |
| 14 | It was the only thing taken other than the victims ' clothing . |
| 15 | Bob 's wife Barbara had died of cancer when Kim was two and she was the only thing left in Bob 's life . |
| 16 | It was the only thing he had ever stood out for . |
| 17 | ‘ It was the only thing to do , believe me — if you had seen him — ’ |
| 18 | It was the only thing I owned , the only thing which could not be taken away from me . |
| 19 | Sidney Biddle Barrows , who ran a call-girl service in the 1980s , said the top-secret file was the only thing stolen from her Manhattan flat . |
| 20 | Mr Hobbs said , ‘ It was the only thing I could think of . |
| 21 | Across the rooftops , a lone cop prowler was the only thing moving on the cold expanse of the Grand Canal . |
| 22 | Perhaps an analyst might say that the casual sexual connection in this context was the only thing that kept the group going . |
| 23 | Corresponding in their insignificance to the islets of the sea , two small clumps of trees , one on each side of the only fault in the impeccable joint , marked the mouth of the river Meinam we had just left on the first preparatory stage of our homeward journey ; and , far back on the inland level , a larger and loftier mass , the grove surrounding the great Paknam pagoda , was the only thing on which the eye could rest from the vain task of exploring the monotonous sweep of the horizon ( 4 ) . |
| 24 | And Minton , like Hopkin , traduced by myth , may likewise have begun to feel by the end of his life that this was the only thing in him , too , that remained inviolate . |
| 25 | I have interviewed people who had spent 30 years in a big bureaucracy who said that the 6-month development task force was the only thing they were excited by and the only thing they would be remembered for — change was their mark on the organization . |
| 26 | She struck out forcefully towards Alexander , which seemed natural , since the boat at anchor was the only thing to swim towards or away from or around on the flat Mediterranean . |
| 27 | It was the only thing she could do to safeguard her sister . |
| 28 | His face had closed down ; it was the only thing he would say . |
| 29 | It was the only thing in the whole book that she related to , ‘ We cherished our language and our culture . |
| 30 | In Conradin 's lonely , loveless world , his imagination was the only thing that kept him alive . |