Example sentences of "could not [verb] [adv] [subord] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Yet half the names could not leave even if they wanted to : they are locked into the 58 ( out of a total of 401 ) Lloyd 's syndicates that have been unable to close one or more of their past annual accounts , so unquantifiable are the liabilities stacking up against them . |
| 2 | Despite some progress in the negotiations on deploying UN troops , including Croatia 's acceptance of their being stationed in areas of current conflict in the republic , Vance reported to the UN that deployment could not go ahead until a ceasefire was observed . |
| 3 | Mr Connelly , of Chantry Green , Ipswich , was told the operation could not go ahead because the five intensive care beds were already full . |
| 4 | The CDU would not let economic planning be taken as far as the SPD favoured , farmers protested against cuts in agricultural subsidies and defence cuts could not go far because of fears of weakening NATO . |
| 5 | Second , Syracuse operated an incentive system whereby crews which finished early could not go home until all the crews had finished ; consequently , those which finished early had an incentive to help the others . |
| 6 | The wench could not talk thus if she had not been her master 's bedfellow . |
| 7 | Theoretically , the Council should have been a cross-section of the people socially ( as we have seen it was geographically ) : its members were appointed by lot , they served only for a year at a time , so that the Councillors should not have felt themselves to be a cohesive hereditary body like the old Areopagus or the ( semi-hereditary ) Roman Senate , and they could not serve more than twice in their lives . |
| 8 | Melanie tried to grasp how dreadful it would be if Finn were dead but she could not think coherently because of the terrible sound of Aunt Margaret 's silence . |
| 9 | One could not doze easily as one had done in Matt Stukely 's day for there was something too insistently personal in this new parson 's efforts to reach them ; yet they had remained stolidly unreached till now when the fervour of his exhortation spoke to them as with an angel 's tongue . |
| 10 | He said : ‘ It seems to me that business could not function properly if such information could not be kept confidential . ’ |
| 11 | If Anselm with so many claims to respect could not do better than this , there could be no hope except in forgery : this was to be the next step . |
| 12 | In Britain you could not do better than to pick out from the varied products of the author John Wainwright , an ex-policeman , those of his books that are in the police procedural mode . |
| 13 | However , they could not do so unless their account was settled in full . |
| 14 | That said , we have seen so many people in recent months who wanted to move but could not do so until they knew what was going to happen to their take-home income . ’ |
| 15 | Lothar having tried for three days to do the dividing , said he " could not do so because of his ignorance of the places involved " and so finally left that task to his father . |
| 16 | ‘ The directors could not do worse if they tried , ’ commented Fernando Calazans , a leading newspaper columnist . |
| 17 | Surely this could not explain more than two decades of political stability . |
| 18 | No-one was available from the Wales CBI for comment but Meirion Lewis , Welsh spokesman for the Institute of Directors , said he was surprised at the findings of the study , but could not comment further until he had seen it . |
| 19 | That could not happen now because of the so-called safe havens . |
| 20 | Added sugar was the prime cause and levels of tooth decay , which had fallen from bad to mediocre , could not fall further until people , and especially children , cut back more on sugar , he said . |
| 21 | The wind was behind her now , blowing her hair forward , so that she could not see properly unless she pushed it to one side . |
| 22 | We had wanted two contrasting areas ( more than two would have been preferable of course in terms of the extent to which one could generalise from our findings but the projects would become expensive and it was acknowledged that we could not include more than two ) , and Ipswich and Newham were felt to fill this requirement . |
| 23 | During the 1980S it was increasingly argued that the world market could not support more than ten suppliers of major equipment items ( such as central office or exchange equipment ) and that Europe 's ten or more manufacturers would need to slim down to , at most four , perhaps three . |
| 24 | He is currently involved in negotiations with the Abingdon and London groups of nurses with a view to providing a forum within the RCN through which nurses in clinical research can maintain contact , but could not say exactly when such a forum might the established . |
| 25 | Of his Cornish relations he said that he found them ‘ … most excellent people , but I could not understand more than one half they said ’ . |
| 26 | ‘ The DUKW had tried to reach the vessel but could not get anywhere because of the nature of the craft . |
| 27 | The dilemma arose because the doctor coming from outside the area could not get there until 6.30 , and the crematorium mortuary closed at 4.30 and did n't reopen until the following Tuesday . |
| 28 | He said : ‘ I forgot to sign the card index that I had administered the drug and I could not order more because it was a Sunday . ’ |
| 29 | Grand Met maintains it had to issue the leases after a Monopolies and Mergers Commission report which said the six big brewers could not own more than 2,000 pubs . |
| 30 | You might just be able to squeeze in a rock dweller and a shell dweller , but you certainly could not have more than one rock-dweller . |