Example sentences of "[adv] [vb infin] [be] a [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | In an attempt to compensate for this and to represent what I can only assume is a minority interest for your readership , my entry consists of a substantial majority of jazzers . |
| 2 | And so it was that she died alone in a mental hospital — as Eliot told Violet Schiff , one of the few who had known them both from their earliest days together , death could only have been a deliverance for her . |
| 3 | Now , I do n't think we know what was the exact Sterling equivalent of the fall in our reserves during the last financial year , but it can only have been a minority of that total of £1and1/2 ; billion of public expenditure which was met neither by the product of taxation nor by borrowing from the public . |
| 4 | Our respective manners proved so widely different , that it would have been quite presumptuous in me to do anything but separate from an undertaking upon which I could only have been a clog . ’ |
| 5 | Rune muttered what could only have been a string of invective in his own language as he released his hold on her . |
| 6 | The French had obviously suffered a debâcle but , in itself , the opening up of the frontier with China might only have been a prelude to Chinese invasion and ensuing catastrophe . |
| 7 | Because of this view I have , I believe Alfieri need not necessarily have been a lawyer as almost any other outsider would have done the job just as well . |
| 8 | The quality buildings will be let — Broadgate is now 95 per cent leased — but slowly developers will realise they have to convert the bad space which I can only say is a lot of classified DIY . ’ |
| 9 | The owner of the estate in the fourth century would thus have been a Firminus , since it is reasonably certain that this building stone belonged to the house built c . |
| 10 | ‘ It ca n't just have been a whim . ’ |
| 11 | Indeed , you had , you had thought about it and so it would just have been a case of saying , yes , this is obvious . |
| 12 | But her appointment should not just have been a token . |
| 13 | ‘ But ‘ little ’ could just have been a term of endearment . |
| 14 | Was it meant to be a chuckling advertisement for his own sensibility ; a tease about the gritty , unpolishable surface of the desert ; or might it just have been a joke on us ? |
| 15 | He could easily have been a character in a Thomas Mann novel — the great remote maestro venturing down from The Magic Mountain to talk to a visiting writer . |
| 16 | It ended up a deserved win , thankfully , but it could so easily have been a draw . |
| 17 | The criticism in New Zealand of their own side after the 24–21 First Test win , that could so easily have been a defeat , was deafening . |
| 18 | What he was saying could as easily have been a lecture delivered to a silent class : the starchy language , the self-satisfied delivery . |
| 19 | She analysed a series of slide talks given at a professional biomedical conference ( it might just as easily have been a meeting of linguists , judging by the examples ) , and classified the hedges . |
| 20 | There can hardly ever have been a piece of legislation that has so utterly failed to achieve its stated objectives . |
| 21 | They were reluctant to believe that there could ever have been a time when the Universe had not looked much like it is today . |
| 22 | For my part , there can hardly have been a day when I did not think of Eliot , when his growing prestige was not a source of immense satisfaction and pride to me , and when personal news about him , however brief , was more than welcome at such distance than propinquity without meeting would have been . |
| 23 | Allott , also 35 , was recalled from holiday in Wales to discover his fate , but it could hardly have been a surprise as he has not regularly figured in Lancashire 's games this season . |
| 24 | Furthermore , the offer could hardly have been a surprise to him . |
| 25 | This was never well stocked and could hardly have been a goldmine . |
| 26 | Nothing very dramatic here , then , but at least he was in the buying and selling game , not a wage slave , and there can hardly have been a time when it was not easier to sell the odd pork chop or two than it was to convince an employer that he ought to buy your skills as a craftsman . |
| 27 | This tally could possibly have been a lot more had it not been for his unreliable behaviour in the show ring . |
| 28 | Ensuring the water supply for the towns during the dry Cretan summers must always have been a problem . |
| 29 | Firstly , there must at least once have been a flow of funds from savers to the trust and on to borrowers , when the trust was first established . |
| 30 | The men in berets at the house at Hackballs Cross , the possibility he might once have been a gunman in his wild and woolly youth . |