Example sentences of "[be] [det] than a [adj] " in BNC.

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1 That would be less than a complete solution .
2 the probability of flooding must be less than a specified level ;
3 They have generally been assumed to be massless , particularly as measurements of the electron-neutrino mass showed it to be less than a few ten thousandths that of the electron .
4 When a sizeable body from space strikes a planet 's surface the impact speed will not be less than a few km/s .
5 In order for an apparent consent or refusal of consent to be less than a true consent or refusal , there must be such a degree of external influence as to persuade the patient to depart from her own wishes , to an extent that the law regards it as undue .
6 Within his own country , he is not so much a Leviathan as a Gulliver figure hemmed in and tied down by a complex network of restraints that must be thrown off if he is to be more than a helpless giant in the White House .
7 But the declaration issued by the congress left no doubt that the decision was intended to be more than a mere facelift : ‘ The present concept of socialism , the Stalinist system , has exhausted all its social , economic , political and moral reserves , and has proved unsuitable for keeping pace with global developments .
8 Civilization had to be more than a mere confluence of economic interests : ‘ And until we set in order our own crazy economic and financial systems , to say nothing of our philosophy of life , can we be sure that our helping hands to the barbarian and the savage will be any more desirable than the embrace of the leper ? ’
9 To be worth two murders in eight days , Ascot had to be more than a mere gambling scam .
10 In aiming to be more than a mere common market , the Treaty emphasised the principle that the problems of one member state would be the problems of all .
11 In practice , it proved to be more than a mere truce after two decades of mutual and unbridled hostility .
12 The resemblance to Marryat in O'Brian 's novels is unarguable in general terms and may even be more than a broad likeness .
13 In the end the consequences of Chernobyl may be more than a horrifying collection of statistics about unleashed radiation , deformed lives , premature deaths .
14 Our data suggest that the biologically active amidated peptides that are potential mediators of these actions can not be more than a small proportion of the total progastrin produced .
15 She wished she had been born into a different age , an age when women had been allowed to be more than a decorative possession .
16 But to be more than a failed one-term president , he must be driven by these brickbats to decide what kind of president — indeed , what kind of man — he really wants to be .
17 Can it be that without the accompanying ‘ form ’ of the lessons of the past , of which memory is a vital part , ‘ freedom ’ can never be more than a fragile short-lived luxury ?
18 Napoleon III had no intention of allowing this to happen and so he determined that the Court should never be more than a set-piece , a backdrop in front of which the principal figures of the regime could be seen to advantage .
19 During the menopause a drop in hormone levels may account for a temporary loss of sexual desire in women , but this need not be more than a passing loss .
20 Some cardiologists complained that the heart could never be more than a temporary remedy and that the money spent on the research could be better used for drug therapies and other techniques .
21 However , for most airports with overall impact of the Tunnel is unlikely to be more than a temporary hiccup in the strong growth of traffic .
22 If it is to be more than a symbolic marker of the moment when North and South decided in principle to work together for mutual survival , a number of decisions on how to administer it will have to be made .
23 You may have known someone else for twenty years and yet he will never be more than a casual acquaintance .
24 There will never be more than a stray shower ; the waves will never be more than three feet high , with a scattering of white horses when the breeze runs into double figures .
25 An accurate and meaningful account of a human society should be more than a generalised narrative of the changes in composition of the archaeological record through time .
26 ‘ But where the sentence is substantial the offence will be grave , the risk the offender represents to the public can be significant and the difference which decision to grant or not to grant parole makes , may be more than a few months .
27 The old lady who dare not allow herself to be more than a few yards from the toilet or the old man whose underclothes are frequently wet with urine , may often react by limitation of social life and consequent days of isolation and low morale …
28 Nobody there , but he could n't be more than a few yards away and Forester 's fingers would n't obey him enough to get the buckles properly secured .
29 Indeed , you get the feeling that there 'd be more than a few pro-war songs knocking about if it shifted the units .
30 Indeed , you get the feeling that there 'd be more than a few pro-war songs knocking about if it shifted the units .
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