Example sentences of "[noun pl] had [been] [v-ing] [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Six of the escapers had been facing death sentences . |
| 2 | 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 . |
| 3 | Owen knew his parents had been having aromatherapy massage , so I think it made him feel grown-up and important . |
| 4 | 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 . |
| 5 | Both companies had been using BR 's Railfreight distribution network after the cessation of Speedlink in 1991 and subsequent collapse of TigerRail operations . |
| 6 | Closures of railway lines had been taking place for many years , accelerated by the growing availability of cars in the 1950s . |
| 7 | 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 . |
| 8 | 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 . |
| 9 | 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 . |
| 10 | Unconfirmed local sources claimed that the rebels had been using tourist convoys to transport weapons from Algeria . |
| 11 | For the first time in such talks the Sudanese People 's Liberation Army ( SPLA ) , which in previous weeks had been losing ground to government forces throughout southern Sudan , was represented by two independent delegations : the so-called Torit group led by Col. John Garang , and a splinter group supporting Lam Akol , based at the town of Nasir [ for SPLA split see p. 38426 ] . |
| 12 | The Palestinians had been firing Katyusha rockets into Galilee , the missiles landing not far from the Israeli village of Ben Ami where Mrs Zamzam 's Arab village of Um Al-Farajh had once stood . |
| 13 | He took advantage of the situation that resulted following the death of the Emperor Henry VI , whose troops had been threatening Rome . |
| 14 | It was disclosed on Jan. 19 , 1989 , that FBI agents posing as commodity traders for nearly two years had been accumulating evidence of widespread fraud on the floors of the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange . |
| 15 | In a statement read to the inquest , she told how her husband of 11 years had been having difficulty sleeping , but had never talked of suicide . |
| 16 | Just previous to our visit to this latter small harbour a well known German smuggling vessel had been coopering off the coast and local boats had been landing cases of spirits . |
| 17 | It was pointed out that from the early '60s onwards some parts of British manufacturing had been facing increased economic difficuIties , in particular because of heightened international competition , which firms had been adopting strategies to counter . |
| 18 | At one time London suppliers had been importing Holland 's renowned out-of-season fruit and vegetables for special occasions ; but with William III came those skilled in the art of ‘ forcing ’ and at the beginning of the eighteenth century Richard Bradley claimed that the kitchen gardens which |
| 19 | The arrival of each team was heralded by a verse , on which France 's top Christmas cracker poets had been working day and night since at least last week : ‘ For many games past , our hearts have been smitten by the courage of the athletes who come from Great Britain . ’ |
| 20 | Before their attack 374 ( 24% ) patients had been receiving bronchodilators alone ( step 1 ) ; in 147 ( 39% ) maintenance treatment was unchanged or reduced after their attack , and 227 ( 61% ) were prescribed medication from step 2 or beyond . |
| 21 | These and others were named as Members of the new London Passenger Transport Board in May 1933 , but moves had been taking place behind the scenes from the beginning of the year . |
| 22 | The naturalists had been studying plants on the island of Steep Holme off Weston-super-Mare when conditions deteriorated and their boat developed engine trouble . |
| 23 | For example , if the words prior to dogs/clogs had been raining cats and then it would be fairly safe to say that the intended word was dogs . |
| 24 | Opposition parties led by the Sri Lanka Freedom Party ( SLFP ) tabled a no confidence motion , due for debate in October , over revelations that the security forces had been providing arms to the LTTE in late 1989 . |
| 25 | Unless they desperately need to believe , like the self-styled ‘ cerealogists ’ who could not accept two jokers had been manufacturing corn circles . |
| 26 | Our club members had been knitting cushions for charity and at the beginning of question time Georgie asked if she could tell the story of her cushion . |
| 27 | Walter Stocker , the head of the Red Cross team trying to deal with the refugee crisis in the central African state , said hordes of peasants had been trekking south since guerrillas of the Rwanda Patriotic Front broke a seven-month ceasefire and attacked army positions on 8 February . |
| 28 | Some of the men had been collecting driftwood and dry sticks and branches from among the trees ; a small fire was coming to life , crackling and spluttering sparks into the haze of heat above it . |
| 29 | The young men had been playing football against a team from the small local college at Adrar , the town which was for me the end of tarmac and the beginning of the desert ; for these city boys , it was the last outpost . |
| 30 | To Zvi , Wine was an upstart — an interloper who had suddenly appeared in the community a year ago ( real name , Zvi had been told , was Benny Wineberg from Brighton ) , set up as a dentist , and by charging ludicrously low fees had been taking clients from Zvi . |