Example sentences of "the [noun sg] [was/were] [prep] first " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Evidence that oathing was going on in the reserve was at first dismissed with the claim that the Masai involved were ‘ half-and-halfs ’ , that is , the offspring of a Masai father and a Kikuyu mother : the loyalty of the ‘ pure Masai ’ was thought to be beyond question . |
| 2 | The date for the election was at first announced for November 26 . |
| 3 | In the end , however , the decision was at first deferred , and then quietly abandoned . |
| 4 | The mitigation of the law was at first carried so far as to sacrifice that object , said J.S. Mill . |
| 5 | The committee was at first divided over the proposal , with Betty Sinclair opposing the whole idea of protest marches , and a decision was deferred to a later meeting , which agreed to go ahead and fixed the date for 24 August . |
| 6 | Russia chose the latter option , and her campaign in the south was at first to have a most promising outcome . |
| 7 | When the Wolof children were asked to put together the pictures or objects in an array that were most alike and to give their reasons , the question was at first put in the form ‘ Why do you say ( or think ) that these are alike ? ’ . |
| 8 | The tramway was at first operated by horses which were stabled at the rear of the present Ashby 's butchers shop . |
| 9 | The lecturer was at first impatient at being called from a tutorial session , before his vanity was fed the magical words of ‘ Foreign and Commonwealth Office ’ . |
| 10 | The reception of the schema was at first fairly favourable , but gradually became more and more hostile , with Cardinal Heenan of Westminster emerging as perhaps the harshest critic . |
| 11 | Although the tunnel was at first rejected on the grounds of cost , eventually in 1872 the Severn Tunnel Bill was passed by Parliament and construction began the following year . |
| 12 | The nature of the intimidation was at first quite subtle . |
| 13 | Its use in the liturgy was at first opposed by the papacy , but , following the Council of Split in 1079 , both the Old Church Slavonic language and the glagolitic script were permitted to exist in central Dalmatia . |
| 14 | The press was at first unhelpful in either explaining or interpreting the events . |
| 15 | The company was at first commanded by a Captain Short , and later by Major H.M. Williams , who was also on the staff of the LNWR Carriage Department . |
| 16 | The conversion was at first a family secret ; when it leaked out to the neighbours the Murphys fled to Dublin , where William worked in his teens in a boot shop . |