Example sentences of "[noun sg] [vb past] been [art] [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Over the years her religion had been a great comfort to her . |
| 2 | Up to this period , mining had been essentially a hand-craft where , as in farming , man-power and horse-power had been the chief means of winning the product . |
| 3 | The expansion of the USA across the continent had been an epic story as pioneers , followed by settlers , moved westwards . |
| 4 | In May 1977 , the Ministry of Defence , although continuing to claim that the shooting had been an unfortunate case of mistaken identity in a legitimate and tense situation , agreed to pay William Black £16,700 in compensation for the injuries he had received . |
| 5 | 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 . |
| 6 | 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 ’ . |
| 7 | THE OPENING ceremony had been a great success . |
| 8 | Before long , the diocese appointed a sub-warden , a Canadian priest with a splendid knowledge of the Old Testament , and a ‘ ’ young'' Anglo-Indian priest whose main study had been the New Testament . |
| 9 | A sense of insecurity and emotional tension had been the permanent feature of Christian existence during most of the previous three centuries . |
| 10 | The territory affected by the secession had been the British Somaliland Protectorate until July 1960 , when it had merged with the territory to the south — which had been a UN trust territory , and before that an Italian colony , known as Somalia — to form an independent Somalia . |
| 11 | Some of the changes were felt to be long overdue , such as a scale 3 second in department for English , and it was not always clear whether the appraisal had been the driving force behind a particular change or whether it had simply brought some long-standing problems to urgent attention . |
| 12 | 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 . |
| 13 | 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 . |
| 14 | Wilson 's formal proposal in 1910 for a conciliation board for the shipping industry had been no idle gesture . |
| 15 | Whereas the recruitment of comfort women — some of whom had been as young as 12 years of age — had previously been acknowledged by Japan , no proof had previously been uncovered that the practice had been an official and systematically imposed policy . |
| 16 | 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 . |
| 17 | In retrospect he said that he felt that the review had been a good thing for the department . |
| 18 | Mrs Duffy left at once , but Clare felt it would be more polite to linger for a while , rather than rush out after the couple , as if the wedding had been an annoying chore . |
| 19 | 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 . |
| 20 | 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 . |
| 21 | Oldfield 's initial deal had been a fair reflection of the market-place at the time . |
| 22 | 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 . |
| 23 | 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 . |
| 24 | The burial had been a small affair . |
| 25 | 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 . |
| 26 | 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 . |
| 27 | For years lunch had been a twenty-minute affair . |
| 28 | 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 . |
| 29 | 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 . |
| 30 | 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 . |