Example sentences of "set themselves the [noun sg] " in BNC.
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| 1 | ONE OF the doughty pack leaders to emerge in the late 1940's from the Manchester scrum of ‘ palaeomagnetists ’ was S , Keith Runcorn — a former Cambridge engineer with an almost unhealthy liking for the rough and tumble of the rugby field , Keith Runcorn is now professor of physics , and geophysics supremo , at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne — and incidentally the president of the university 's rugby club , To honour Runcorn 's reaching the age of 60 , the university organised earlier this month a three-day conference on ‘ Magnetism , planetary rotation and convection in the Solar System ’ , Since the Second World War , geology has undergone conceptual upheavals as never before , The apparently ludicrous ideas proposed by Alfred Wegener in the 1920s , that the Earth 's continents were drifting around , have found solid ground , The evidence came from physicists inspired by wartime work on radar , by cosmic-ray research and the discovery that some rotating stars have a magnetic field , The physicists set themselves the task of measuring whether rotating bodies on Earth also produce magnetic fields , The eminent Patrick Maynard Blackett devised a highly sensitive magnetometer for this work , but finding that a spinning gold cylinder produced no magnetic field , turned his machine to measuring rock magnetism , A school of expertise concerned with ‘ fossilised magnetism ’ developed around him at Manchester and later at Imperial College , London , The fruits of such work inspired a reappraisal of continental drift and new theories to explain the mechanisms responsible for moving the continents , and later produced the foundations on which were forged the unifying concepts of plate tectonics and seafloor spreading , Runcorn applies an enormous enthusiasm to all that he takes on — as many past students and editors of various science journals can testify , His first notoriety came with his attempts to determine whether the Earth 's general magnetic field was related to the planet 's rotation , or related to some deep-seated phenomenon , To determine this he took his magnetometer down some of the deep Lancashire coal pits . |
| 2 | Among those who set themselves the task of creating a hostel for orthodox children was Sybil Wulwick . |
| 3 | They set themselves the task of creating a full-scale replica of it using the original Roman techniques . |
| 4 | Members also set themselves the task of finding an acceptable formula to bring the " three Chinas " into the grouping , although Chinese Premier Li Peng stated in August that China was not prepared to join the organization as one of " three Chinas " [ see pp. 37613 ; 37656 ] . |
| 5 | Many pressure groups set themselves the task of sedulously winning over influential opinion to their view of the future . |