Example sentences of "[noun sg] [vb past] [been] a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Over the years her religion had been a great comfort to her . |
| 2 | It was normal to tear the shawl first so that its value would not tempt a profane person to violate the tomb ; but the shawl had been a beautiful one and he had not been able to bring himself to do that . |
| 3 | In ‘ The Decline of the English Murder ’ he argued that whereas in the past murder had been a serious business involving strong personal commitments and emotions , it had now become an almost casual affair informed by ‘ the anonymous life of dance-halls and the false values of the American film ’ . |
| 4 | THE OPENING ceremony had been a great success . |
| 5 | Her engagement had been a bitter mistake , but it had at least taught her a lesson in preserving her invulnerability , instead of charging into things with unbridled optimism . |
| 6 | Their most obvious effect had been a massive increase in speculation as more capitalists tried to make money by wheeling and dealing rather than by productive investment : hence the huge foreign exchange dealings and the booms in share prices , gold , land , real estate and commodities . |
| 7 | The pardon had been a central demand of previous Army mutinies , and the prospect of its being announced was thought to have encouraged the loyalty of the Army in putting down the Dec. 3 carapintadas rebellion . |
| 8 | In retrospect he said that he felt that the review had been a good thing for the department . |
| 9 | One scholar writes that whereas before 1861 " a Russian serf had been a legal nullity " , afterwards he received " entirely new legal entitlements and obligations extending into every basic transaction of everyday life " , with the result that the government had to redesign the empire 's judicial system in order to integrate the peasantry into the community at large . |
| 10 | Buried within the plastic explosive had been a miniature detonator , or minidet , later extracted from within a fragment of vertebra that had been itself buried in the spleen . |
| 11 | Oldfield 's initial deal had been a fair reflection of the market-place at the time . |
| 12 | It was two years since I had stood on this spot on the way from Tan Hill to Hawes ; then the force had been a sluggish trickle after a dry spring , now , two years later almost to the day , it was a respectable torrent . |
| 13 | At Huddersfield , a strong reserve force had been a vital factor in the Championship run , and Chapman soon set about building a similar force at Arsenal . |
| 14 | The burial had been a small affair . |
| 15 | The recital had been a remarkable musical occasion and the audience , comprised both of visitors to Møn and residents of the island , had felt united and at peace under the spell of Schubert , Schumann and Strauss . |
| 16 | Niall Cooper , the national organiser , said that the lobby had been a tremendous team effort , bringing together a unique alliance of Church leaders , Christian organisations , tenants and people in housing need . |
| 17 | For years lunch had been a twenty-minute affair . |
| 18 | Having decided to surrender to his plans for the evening — lunch had been a light one and already the pangs of hunger were making themselves felt — she would n't do it without a token show of resistance . |
| 19 | The old Han squatted at the entrance to the corridor , waiting there patiently , knowing the dream had been a true dream ; one of those he could not afford to ignore . |
| 20 | Wesker 's dream had been a cultural palace for the workers ; in the years ahead , through the Henshaw connection it was to become something else . |
| 21 | Early in the year , flooding of the road at the northern end of the village had been a grave problem , but after a great deal of pressure on the authorities , the matter had been successfully resolved . |
| 22 | This issue had been a major stumbling block , as any equalization of representation almost inevitably meant a relative reduction in the current number of seats held by the country 's most heavily populated provinces , Ontario and Quebec . |
| 23 | This issue had been a major stumbling block , as any equalization of representation almost inevitably meant a relative reduction in the current number of seats held by the country 's most heavily populated provinces , Ontario and Quebec . |
| 24 | The textbook issue had been a persistent irritant in relations between Japan and its neighbours . |
| 25 | The issue had been a key factor in the extraordinary victory of Democrat Harris Wofford in the November 1991 contest for the vacant Pennsylvanian seat in the Senate [ see p. 38566 ] . |
| 26 | If the increase in child benefit had been a real increase , there might have been some logic in that . |
| 27 | The advent of Edna into the household had been a miraculous and totally unexpected blessing , if such a word could be applied to what had become a devastating situation . |
| 28 | The Board 's General Manager Tom Frawley said today that the decision to close the Shantallow home had been a difficult one , but claimed it was the only possible course of action ‘ in light of the increase over the last few years in the level of nursing home accommodation and the reduced demand for residential accommodation which has come about as a result of improvements in housing in general and the development of sheltered accommodation and other community alternatives . ’ |
| 29 | Wallace Ellwood 's plan had been a loose one : find out how great a risk Annie Roland might be and act accordingly . |
| 30 | Before moving on to make use of the database , it was necessary to assess whether or not the data itself was valid for the organisation being studied , bearing in mind that so far the exercise had been a systems-thinking one , rather than a study of what was happening in practice . |