Example sentences of "a desire [to-vb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | It is possible that against a long-term downward movement of population , perhaps sparked off by a variety of economic concerns , the economic depression helped to determine the immediate attitudes in some of the old declining industrial centres just as the prospect of prosperity , and the accumulation of consumer goods and property , may have stimulated a desire to control family size among the population of the expanding industrial centres of the Midlands and the South East . |
| 2 | He repeatedly expresses himself as awestruck by nature and by the contemplation of truth , and as having a , a desire to worship something outside himself . |
| 3 | ‘ What may not be expected , ’ wrote the enthusiastic deputy-lieutenant previously quoted , to the Duke of Newcastle , ‘ now that the spirit is lighted up , and the hearts of the country people inflamed with a desire to defend their country and particularly against the French ? ’ |
| 4 | Instead , individualism is motivated by a desire to defend the idea that individuals are autonomous agents , and thus tends to focus on a particular set of individual properties , including desires , choices , decisions and intentions . |
| 5 | In practice , the MMC has sometimes reported against foreign takeovers as contrary to the public interest , but the reasoning has been other than a desire to stifle competition ( e.g. the report on Government of Kuwait/British Petroleum , 1988 , which decided that it was contrary to the public interest for the Government of Kuwait to gain a major shareholding in BP ) . |
| 6 | A desire to put a speedy end to the strife that had riven the party and restore unity was a prime factor in their minds . |
| 7 | It is difficult to believe that a desire to put on a good show at an exhibition could shape a major research programme . |
| 8 | Or a desire to put the record straight ? |
| 9 | Levi was interested in action , purpose , work , and capable of them : and the capacity may have been formed in contention with a desire to withdraw and perhaps to give up . |
| 10 | The pact was ostensibly motivated by a desire to eradicate political dynasties and corruption in favour of political renovation and democratic change . |
| 11 | These were considerations that could not be ignored by a Conservative leader , Austen Chamberlain had been toppled in 1922 because he had not withdrawn from an unpopular coalition in time ; and one of the motives for the destruction of the Lloyd George coalition was a desire to replace it by a protectionist government . |
| 12 | In the interviews housewives sometimes expressed dissatisfaction with the aids and amenities they had , and a desire to replace them with ‘ better ’ ones : to substitute a fitted carpet for loose rugs , a stainless steel sink for a vitreous enamel one , an inside lavatory for an outside one . |
| 13 | Similarly the overall scheme does set constraints against which some local initiatives ( a desire to incorporate more fieldwork into the regular term , for example ) battle in vain . |
| 14 | There are growing signs of a desire to abandon the descriptive approach to this material and to examine unknown fields rather than continuing to prove by alternative means what is already known . |
| 15 | He suppressed a desire to call out her name . |
| 16 | A desire to touch them , to feel the smooth hardness of living wood again , brought him across the tarmacadam to the grass , which felt spongy and cool under him . |
| 17 | That which restructures for labour is local , in that it arises from a desire to tackle local problems with locally based solutions to benefit local people . |
| 18 | He asked himself how accurate his memory in fact was , how much time and a desire to repudiate the past had blocked off . |
| 19 | There is a recognition among these groups of the unity of their struggles and a desire to support each other , based on the recognition that if one community stops mining in its area it will add to the strength of opposition groups in other areas , while a defeat in one area will lead to a weakening of campaigns in other areas . |
| 20 | Anger responses can quickly degenerate into self-pity , self-indulgence or self-righteousness ; a desire to teach the other person a thing or two — even an exaggerated desire to show that I am right after all , and I told you so ! |
| 21 | She rattled on breathlessly , perhaps encouraged , Dexter thought , by a desire to delay Blanche coming to the point of the meeting . |
| 22 | Certainly in certain professions such as teaching , nursing or social work it is generally considered that a desire to serve the public is of paramount importance . |
| 23 | An honest belief will always defeat an allegation of malice , unless the plaintiff can prove that the honestly mistaken defendant was activated mainly by a desire to injure the plaintiff or to obtain an improper personal advantage . |
| 24 | For example , it is not clear why , if they are motivated by a desire to mark prestige , wives of men in high-status occupations should not simply imitate the language of their husbands . |
| 25 | Your Lordships are motivated by a desire to carry out the intentions of Parliament in enacting legislation and have no intention or desire to question the processes by which such legislation was enacted or of criticising anything said by anyone in Parliament in the course of enacting it . |
| 26 | Observers speculate that its decision to issue the ban now is connected with a desire to demonstrate adherence to international treaties , in an effort to bolster its bid to host the Olympics in the year 2000 . |
| 27 | As it turned out , it seems to have been inspired by a desire to bolster government policy rather than to make an objective assessment of the state of trees . |
| 28 | Government intervention has been prompted , therefore , by a desire to save capitalism , not from a desire to undermine it . |
| 29 | This obviously stresses a desire to reach a specific cultural community , but more than that Saab 's position also indicates the political aspects of cultural work . |
| 30 | Next morning , after joining the family at worship , I turned my steps still farther north , having a desire to reach the most northerly part of the island . |