Example sentences of "what [pron] could not [vb infin] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | ‘ Just outstanding , ’ Rickie said , but referring to what I could not tell . |
| 2 | In 1980 , coming back from a hospital in the States where I had been told that I ought to have an operation ( interestingly on my throat — it was as though all the tension caused by what I could not say was caught up there ) , I saw that I had to be free of this . |
| 3 | What I could not say was that , as we two stood in the shadowy parlour , I felt considerably within her spell . |
| 4 | What I could not understand was the absence of consensus among adults as to what constituted death , and as to its meaning . |
| 5 | They said outright what I could not find words for . |
| 6 | What she could not decide was whether there had ever been anything to find . |
| 7 | To start what she could not finish . |
| 8 | What she could not know was that by refusing to deal with the Protestant threat until the crown matrimonial had been obtained , she would throw away the strongest card in her anti-Protestant hand before having a chance to play it . |
| 9 | What she could not see was what was in his mind . |
| 10 | What she did not say — what she could not say — was that the cold high days with their lengthening light terrified her . |
| 11 | What she could not have thought of was this sort of permanent liaison , almost a marriage . |
| 12 | Dr Neil turned away from inspecting his own bookshelves , said , apropos of what she could not imagine , ‘ You are not English , I perceive , Miss McAllister . ’ |
| 13 | What we could not take by political intrigue and threats we took by ‘ gun-boat diplomacy ’ . |
| 14 | We should have had our case prepared and presented to him , spelling out what we wanted and what we could not accept , before he took his decision . |
| 15 | These last did in Scotland what they could not do in England , causing Protestant zealots , whom Ewing also disliked , to oppose the Oxford men with constant litigation . |
| 16 | And the scene of the burning of the books , seen on film by her many times , was as vivid as an actual memory : Hitler 's jack-booted thugs in their brown shirts , swastikas on their arms , heaving the books from the Library and heaping the heritage of the world on to a pyre , dancing and gloating as the flames consumed book after book , volume after volume : Heine , Schiller , Brecht , Thomas Mann , Einstein , Freud , Marx : history , poetry , novels , science , the works of philosophers , psychologists — men and women who had dedicated their lives for the betterment of the brutes who burned their books ; brutes living in utter ignorance , leading lives as dull and limited as the beasts of the fields , inspired only by resentment , vile prejudice , and blind hatred of what they could not understand , and , it was true , victims themselves of poverty and ignorance seeking victims in their turn — and finding them . |
| 17 | Hitler 's instruction to curb anti-Polish activity meant that what they could not accomplish by open violence or legalistic chicanery they would have to accomplish by stealth and skulduggery . |
| 18 | What they could not appreciate , because of the crowds , was the atmosphere created by leading American architect Frank O. Gehry . |
| 19 | He had found nothing more , except that on the beaten earth of the floor there had been a single dark stain , from what he could not tell . |
| 20 | Could it be that this was what he could not get from Bella ? |
| 21 | What he could not see was the restless , self-centred consumerism it would produce . |
| 22 | He did , however , have one quality which proved to be an asset to his country — he knew how to win by craft and diplomacy what he could not gain by force . |
| 23 | What he could not understand , he said , was how this idea got so muddled up with hostages and the necessity to sell arms . |
| 24 | This Edouard knew : what he could not understand was that in the years since the end of the war Jean-Paul had made no attempt to restore the house . |
| 25 | What he could not foresee was that generals would renew their political role after 1814 , not as representatives of the old order , but as liberal paladins . |
| 26 | It hardly matters , given the man ; the essence , his core , a sly pederast ( Parker was a regular subscriber to magazines entitled such as Boy and Superboy , Kim and Pim ) ; he thought it best , and he felt safer ( it was his constant dread that the magazines — delivered from an English P.O. box number — should go adrift or burst in transit ) that as a cover-up he acted crude ; and he did it so well ( it might be a hateful zest for what he could not have ) that you would have never thought . |
| 27 | Developing since the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century , accelerating in the nineteenth century in step with the acceleration of capitalist industry , the process of intrusion increasingly separated culture out into the familiar contours of ‘ high ’ and ‘ low ’ , isolating what it could not assimilate . |
| 28 | The household unit of production , though headed by male weaver or other out-worker , was not governed by the object of accumulating a monetary surplus : " It could not maximise what it could not measure . " |
| 29 | What it could not ignore was the threat of European fascism . |
| 30 | What it could not agree on was how the budget was to be balanced ; and it was this disagreement that led to the break-up of the government . |