Example sentences of "[was/were] [verb] [adv] a [adj] " in BNC.

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1 From each performance they were given either a fixed sum or collected money from the crowd for charity .
2 Government proposals to solve the unrelieved surplus advance corporation tax problem suffered by companies with overseas operations were given only a guarded welcome .
3 Each month lots were drawn for the names of the next families to leave , and the fortunate ones were given only a short time to make their final preparations .
4 Meanwhile , Reading Council were lashing together a municipal PR exercise , using as a dodgy pretext the 400th anniversary of the destruction of the local abbey by Henry VIII .
5 My actual first thatching was done at Chessington Zoo on the ladies ' loos when we were helping out a fellow franchisee with whom Eric had trained .
6 How must it be to tend your bit of land and sow crops and vegetables and perhaps rear animals , knowing you were building up a comfortable home and an inheritance for your children and then see your children taken and forced into slavery by the Robemaker ?
7 If we were to carry out a similar survey in the future and recording conversations would you be willing to take part ?
8 They were to drive around a marked circuit whilst keeping a ball in a dish on the bonnet .
9 So a conductor 's duty were n't very very nice then , probably three piece duties , which were spread duties but you know people thought they were bringing in a wonderful thing to be one man operated but it was before the war that we had one man operated buses .
10 er If it 's an emergency case — if you were bringing in a sick relative who you were wishing to have admitted to our accident and emergency department , you can park your car right outside the front door and bring your relative in .
11 He was on patrol with two other UN military observers when the mine exploded as they were driving around a small bridge a few miles north of the temples in Siem Reap province .
12 The town ended sharply , and we were driving along a bumpy lane through the jungle at reckless speed .
13 Another time in the 1987 election we were driving along a dual carriageway in Norfolk heading for an airport to meet Mrs Thatcher 's plane and join up with the Battlebus .
14 They were walking along a smallish road to the left of the extraordinary green-and-white-striped cathedral and David suddenly stopped and put both hands on Julia 's shoulders .
15 They were walking along a broad corridor between glass-partitioned offices , lit by bleak fluorescent strip lighting , where sallow-faced men in shirt-sleeves stared at computer terminals or pored over sheets of printout .
16 As they were walking along a narrow passageway by the bar Mr Maltby accidentally nudged Mr Waterworth a former miner , and ‘ spilled twopence worth of beer . ’
17 It was a sunny autumn afternoon in 1963 as John and Mary Briggs were walking along a disused trackbed in the West Country with their two Jack Russell terriers , Tina and Spot , who were enjoying their walk as much as their owners .
18 The irony is that no VAT would be levied if hoteliers were to set up a separate sandwich bar business next to their property and handed out sandwiches and drinks .
19 If that company were to set up a new pension scheme based on only 461 employees , the likelihood is that scheme would in no way match a scheme based on more than 10,000 members , as is the case with the Scottish Transport Group .
20 If a price rise were to discourage even a small proportion of buyers , then that basic cost would rise yet further .
21 He told Corbett to sit on a bench and went back to where he and a young man , a villein from the village , were poring over a great leatherbound book open on the table .
22 It started in the Autumn of eighty-eight , when Phil approached me and said , ‘ Look , we would like to consider putting our services that we do offer to finance in a more effective way ’ , running alongside that was a project being run by Oxfordshire Health Authority where they were sending postal surveys to elderly people ; people over the age of seventy erm sixty-five at one point , and were getting back a huge amount of information on their perceived needs .
23 There was the time we were getting off a crowded coach on a day trip to Brighton and he pushed me back into my seat .
24 The followers were calling up a half-glimpsed nightmare .
25 Soon we were bowling along a narrow road , through a gentle countryside of green fields , with dim mountains in the far distance .
26 My horse went down a couple of times when we were riding along a shallow river The hooves must 've turned up the mud at the bottom and I 'm sorry but no amount of expert preparation can help you keep cool when a 500lb horse goes down on you .
27 John and the rest of the room seemed to be miles away — even my own voice , when I produced it finally , sounded as if it were coming down a long-distance telephone .
28 If she were to hum quietly a popular song of the day , or laugh gaily at something which tickled her sense of humour , then he let loose a stream of abuse and insults , shouting hysterically .
29 Thus far they had found nothing , and above the bed of the river their searchings were stirring up a cloudy precipitate of mud as the white waters gushed across the weir .
30 From this vantage point they were to keep up a steady rifle fire on the sepoys advancing over the open ground until they heard the first ringing of the Church bell .
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