Example sentences of "[noun sg] [was/were] [prep] first [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The morale of the air force was at first excellent , this being achieved through provision of better rations and other privileges . |
| 2 | The Central Committee was at first unsympathetic but on 10 October , at a meeting which Lenin attended , it was resolved to make armed insurrection the order of the day . |
| 3 | The lecturer was at first impatient at being called from a tutorial session , before his vanity was fed the magical words of ‘ Foreign and Commonwealth Office ’ . |
| 4 | In Orkney , the attack on housing policy was at first personal but then it turned against bureaucracy in general which led officials to being very defensive . |
| 5 | Pinay was at first reluctant to pursue the project , which in all probability would have died an administrative death , had de Gaulle not let off a series of explosions of impatience with the footdragging of the Finance Ministry . |
| 6 | The press was at first unhelpful in either explaining or interpreting the events . |
| 7 | The citation order was at first unsatisfactory and modifications were made in order to better reflect the needs of users . |
| 8 | So , the Conservative response to Mr Smith 's Budget was at first feeble . |
| 9 | In the end , however , the decision was at first deferred , and then quietly abandoned . |