Example sentences of "[was/were] [verb] by a [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The Middle Ages were punctuated by a series of earlier revivals usually centred round courts like those of Charlemagne and Frederick II . |
| 2 | On 2 September , troops opened fire when barricades were erected by a group protesting against a sharp increase in the cost of living and the government 's failure to convene a national conference to discuss the country 's political future . |
| 3 | Groups of questions on similar tasks were prefaced by a statement of their nature ( e.g. " The next two questions are about change from 50p " ) . |
| 4 | Even greater passions were aroused by a spy case of absolutely no strategic significance whatever , the case of Alger Hiss , who was finally jailed in January 1950 , after two years of allegation and wild rumour . |
| 5 | Two forms of injection were arranged by a statistician who was not involved in the study . |
| 6 | Very soon , however , his natural good looks were recognized by a film producer , and by 1919 he had appeared in three short silent dramas , despite a casting card reading ‘ does not screen well ’ . |
| 7 | They were halted by a hail of arrows from the English , they failed to break the English positions and each advancing wave of cavalry bore down on those who had gone before , leading to utter confusion and heavy losses . |
| 8 | A burly serjeant-of-arms stopped them , asked their business , and grudgingly let them through into the main courtyard where they were halted by a steward who took them up into the main hall . |
| 9 | Repeated attempts to start up a newly refitted reactor were delayed by a series of minor faults , including a small fire , insulation problems , and pump failures . |
| 10 | The prizes were guarded by a man with an automatic rifle . ’ |
| 11 | Louise had also confirmed Jim Miller 's assertion that the grounds were guarded by a killer pack of Dobermans , ten in number she said . |
| 12 | In follow-up tests , the same foods were given by a tube leading straight into the stomach ( thus avoiding the taste-buds ) to check whether she would still respond in the same way . |
| 13 | The problems were compounded by a shortage of coal and natural gas and uncertainty over supplies of oil from the former Soviet Union . |
| 14 | problems raised by the non-transferable nature of social behaviour and structure were compounded by a distinction between social conventions , which were adopted wholesale , and social morality , which could hardly be transformed overnight . |
| 15 | Bad wiring practices were compounded by a workforce which was adequate neither in size nor in skills . |
| 16 | Opposition criticisms that the DLP was moving with insufficient speed to eradicate the legacy of South Korea 's recent history of military rule were highlighted by a scandal in October which revealed that the Defence Security Command ( DSC ) , the counter-intelligence unit of the armed forces , was continuing to conduct surveillance operations against a broad range of civilian figures including Kim Dae Jung . |
| 17 | However , Macedonia 's internal divisions were highlighted by a referendum held by the ethnic Albanian minority in Macedonia on Jan. 11-12 , in which 99.9 per cent voted for territorial and political autonomy . |
| 18 | Sensitivities on the issue were highlighted by a grenade attack aimed at French personnel in September [ see below ] . |
| 19 | If Eliza 's mother had suffered anxieties over the birth of her fifth grandchild so far from home , her fears were allayed by a string of reassuring letters sent back to London . |
| 20 | Fears that Wincanton would join the list were allayed by a morning inspection . |
| 21 | The crash , involving twelve vehicles , happened after drivers were blinded by a mixture of fog and thick black smoke from a burning lorry . |
| 22 | Later , as the crew re-enacted a play meant to raise the spirits of the dead , they were blinded by a sandstorm which left almost all of them with conjunctivitis . |
| 23 | Contrastingly , on the final day the journalistic gathering were honoured by a visit from General Zahid Ali Akbar , who made it clear that Mike Gatting would be welcome back in Pakistan if he were chosen for England 's next tour there . |
| 24 | ‘ Unless one can say that injuries were sustained by a person in life , the consequence is that the statutory provision is not met , ’ said Mr Hamilton . |
| 25 | The slides were examined by a consultant pathologist ( HT ) who was unaware of the group origin of the tissue . |
| 26 | CASE STUDY 2.2 — MR AND MRS FITCH This elderly couple , Joan Fitch aged 65 and Stanley Fitch aged 67 , were referred by a psychogeriatrician after an assessment by the community psychiatric nurse . |
| 27 | Devastated as she was by the news of Liz and Owen 's terrible accident — and the knowledge that their lives were hanging by a thread — she was also feeling dazed and stunned at her husband 's dramatic reappearance in her life . |
| 28 | Mansell dominated the opening qualifying in his Canon-Williams-Renault for the tough 81-lap Adelaide street circuit race , where his 1986 title hopes were wrecked by a tyre blow-out . |
| 29 | Targets set for the compiler — including provision of a single parallel programming model for developing applications that can run on a variety of computers — were formulated by a coalition of industrial groups known as the High Performance Fortran Forum ( HPFF ) . |
| 30 | These illnesses — bronchitis and then emphysema being the most prominent — recurred throughout the Fifties and were provoked by a number of causes , not the least of which was the fact that Eliot was still a heavy smoker . |