Example sentences of "so [adj] [conj] a [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | From time to time there are cases where the provocation is so gross and so strong that a court imposes a very short prison sentence or even a suspended sentence for the manslaughter — typically , cases where a wife , son , or daughter kills a persistently bullying husband or father — and such cases raise the more general question of whether provocation should ever be a complete defence to homicide or to other crimes . |
| 2 | To this day , public fascination with the disaster remains so strong that a flourishinhg market has developed for Titanic memorabilia . |
| 3 | It seemed to the court that in its current form the civil components of the process of judicial review were so strong that an application which claimed the civil relief authorised by section 21K was to be regarded as a civil cause or matter . |
| 4 | He was so low that a wing-tip touched the ground , causing a ground loop . |
| 5 | As many as one in five of the population attends an accident and emergency unit every year , yet staff shortages are so acute that a quarter of the 239 units in England and Wales do not have a trained consultant in charge . |
| 6 | In the words of one of them , the background noise was so loud that a rifle shot sounded comparable to ‘ the popping of a champagne cork amid the hubbub of a banquet ’ . |
| 7 | I could fancy her if she was n't so old and a teacher . |
| 8 | Perhaps the target is so unrealistic that a short-fall is inevitable . |
| 9 | The demands of children can be so insistent that a mother never uses the odd quiet moment to sit down with them and enjoy their company ; the temptation is always to seek out the next task . |
| 10 | His resignation arose not so much because an audience was to be debarred from geology , as because women were to be debarred from the audience . |
| 11 | But seen from within , they appear to be like nothing so much as a mirror-image of the Elizabethan world picture : a little world , tightly organised into its own ranks and with its own rules , as rigid in its own way as the most elaborate protocol at court or ritual in church . |
| 12 | Would you prefer to move to a flat — one without so much as a balcony and with no windowsills — or to concrete your garden over and spend your days watching your neighbours at work ? |
| 13 | They now fight on a daily basis and invariably without so much as a warning growl . |
| 14 | However , it he takes as souvenir so much as a blade of grass the entrance to this charming kingdom will close forever more . |
| 15 | ‘ By the way , ’ she began , hardly able to credit that , when earlier that morning her car had been such a concern to her , great expanses of time should now elapse without her giving it so much as a thought , ‘ could you tell me the name of the garage where my car — ’ |
| 16 | This is not a question of whether the project can be funded indefinitely so much as a question of whether the initiatives in particular schools can maintain momentum once the project grant has been spent . |
| 17 | The two basic amino-terminal α-helices sit in the major groove so that they are perpendicular to one another on opposite sides of the DNA duplex ; they resemble nothing so much as a pair of short chopsticks . |
| 18 | But by not so much as a flicker of an eyebrow did he betray his emotions . |
| 19 | This is that the policy was not an attack on the universities so much as a defence of their interests — whether or not correctly understood by officials and ministers . |
| 20 | Scarcely pausing for thought , she sat herself down at the keyboard and , without so much as a sheet of music to look at , launched into Rachmaninov 's Second Piano Concerto , blushing deeply to the round of spontaneous applause . |
| 21 | Having seen taxis north of Adrar , and then a couple of days ago , a convoy which had not so much as a compass , I had begun to think the desert not so terrible after all . |
| 22 | Every moment I was in a fever of anxiety lest I should be missing , by so much as a second , the vital news I both longed for and dreaded . |
| 23 | You see , ’ she went on earnestly , ‘ if you were to change the past by so much as a second , do just one minute thing differently , the results could be catastrophic . |
| 24 | The questions she had feared earlier seemed to be taking physical shape in the shadowy corners of the room , phantoms waiting to trap her if she dropped her guard for so much as a second . |
| 25 | The five minutes were almost up , and she would n't put it past Lori to leave if she was so much as a second late . |
| 26 | However , he concluded : ‘ Having to tackle reductions of this magnitude should not be seen so much as a threat to our way of life but as a challenge and an enormous opportunity for the world 's scientists , engineers and industrialists in both the developed and developing countries . ’ |
| 27 | without so much as a sign : |
| 28 | It 's quite possible that people shunned us not so much as a mark of outrage at what we had done , but to avoid the frustration of not being able to satisfy their curiosity about what exactly it was . |
| 29 | For there grow no Trees , no not so much as a Shrub on St. Kilda ’ . |
| 30 | They get between me and my patients , at any time , for so much as a nanosecond , and they 're out , I do n't care what it does to their scheduling . ’ |