Example sentences of "they [vb past] be [v-ing] [art] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | If the pressure was on McSharry from the accountants concerned about ever increasing costs , it was also coming from the environmentalists who were objecting to taxpayers funding intensive farming which they believed was damaging the environment . |
| 2 | They 'd been watching the site for some time . |
| 3 | They 'd been watching the premises for several months . |
| 4 | They 'd been sharing a cell for the last two years . |
| 5 | ‘ They 'd been raiding the school at the end of Dwyer Street . ’ |
| 6 | 2 families had to leave their homes after they were terrorised by a mob , angry they 'd been helping the Police to catch the joyriders . |
| 7 | It looked as if they 'd been having a party and had just taken off in the middle of it . |
| 8 | There were rumours they 'd been having an affair while he was actually teaching her , when she would have been fifteen ; there were rumours the girl was pregnant . |
| 9 | ‘ The man , who was known to the police , was one of the knockers they 'd been keeping an eye on . |
| 10 | [ The Faroese has earlier appealed to Greenpeace — which had strongly campaigned against the islanders ' traditional whale-hunt — for help in countering pollution which they claimed were making the whales inedible — see ED 49/50 . ] |
| 11 | In the ensuing days there were further raids on campuses throughout the country as the authorities sought to arrest those whom they alleged were fomenting the unrest . |
| 12 | But Citrine and Self defended their policy against critics , whom they felt were ignoring the new and differing requirements of larger organisations . |
| 13 | Erm so the Communist Party , to try to counter this sort of erm advance of the rich peasant economy which they saw was getting a bit too far , tried to encourage the formation of mutual aid teams erm but they were very , there were problems in that in erm the implementation of this because peasants were unwilling to share their tools , they were n't compensated for it . |
| 14 | Reading it , the British discovered that they had been speaking the imperial equivalent of prose all their lives . |
| 15 | Since about 1840 they had been expanding the scope of their products to include the whole range of cotton-processing machinery . |
| 16 | ‘ Did you want me , Myra ? ’ she asked as calmly as if they had been discussing the weather and not within an ace of making either love or war . |
| 17 | ‘ They had been discussing the idea that a pet should be for life not just for Christmas and decided to take the idea a step further , ’ she said . |
| 18 | Whilst they had been watching the protesters , a waitress had come out of The Crossed Keys hotel on the corner of the square carrying a tray of interesting-looking glasses . |
| 19 | As the boats began to leave the mouth of the River Tees , where they had been barring the way to Teesport , they claimed their eight-hour show of strength had been a success . |
| 20 | More distressingly , we discovered that the Aru islands and the Greater Bird of Paradise were no longer on their trading routes and that for the last twenty years they had been pursuing the shorter and more profitable triangular passage between Celebes , Java and Borneo . |
| 21 | They had been defending the building for 31 days and there was blood on the floor . |
| 22 | Almost as if they had been awaiting the signal of an extra moon , they now took their prancings into a more intense phase . |
| 23 | They had been crossing a scree ; there had been many loose stones , and footing was difficult , but surely at that point they had been traversing a gentler slope , and her employer had actually been standing on a flattish stretch of granite when she had fallen . |
| 24 | In Arequipa I had watched women in the church of Santo Domingo giggle happily as they dressed the Virgin for a procession ; , behaving much as if they had been preparing a girl for a wedding , not a poor girl though , rather one Velasquez might be called upon to paint . |
| 25 | Students who are entitled to transitional relief will receive ⅕ of the relief they would have received if they had been paying the full community charge . |
| 26 | For nearly a generation they had been resisting the introduction of written inventories of peasant obligations , whose purpose was to prevent noblemen treating serfs in the arbitrary manner to which they were accustomed . |
| 27 | After hearing that they had been attending a high school graduation party , they were released by the judge on the condition that they were each driven to their parents ' home exactly as they appeared in court — with only a blanket for |
| 28 | They had been challenging the sailing colliers for a number of years and the movement of coal was so important that the nautical press carried a daily feature and report on the coal trade . |
| 29 | Even though they were retired , they had been leading a very active life . |
| 30 | At the last , Britain 's ambassador to Constantinople abandoned the encouragement he had been giving the Turks and advised them to go on negotiating , but by this time neither Britain nor France was in a position to withdraw the backing which they had been giving the sultan . |