Example sentences of "was [adv] [verb] [pron] [prep] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | While Branson was negotiating the purchase of his Caribbean island , the living corpse of the Sex Pistols was slowly kicking itself to final , ignominious extinction . |
| 2 | You suggest he was secretly testing it for work on the Antarctic land mass , flying it south over the pack ice . |
| 3 | ‘ I was rather hoping something like this would happen , actually . |
| 4 | A pipe feeding the power steering system came adrift on the climb oil to pump out of the hydraulic system , and Fisher seized the opportunity to start building a lead that was eventually to carry him to a record fourth successive Lakes victory . |
| 5 | Even Peter Thorneycroft , the veteran proto-monetarist of 1958 whom she had made Party Chairman , proved to be a ‘ one-nation ’ man at heart , and she was eventually to sack him in favour of a little-tried new favourite , Cecil Parkinson , the Paymaster-General . |
| 6 | In adopting this chic mode of expression , the nouveau riche was effectively distinguishing itself from the traditional middle classes while at the same time flaunting the fact that it had connoisseurship and taste . |
| 7 | Maybe I had meant to raise Alec 's image of himself , show him that I was effectively placing myself in his power , giving him the responsibility that friendship demanded . |
| 8 | ‘ Naturally , but I could see that he was merely dismissing them as the ravings of an hysterical woman . |
| 9 | It was all to save me from the Fiery Pit . |
| 10 | A Gothic mahogany bookcase ( lot 478 , est. $6,000–9,000 ) was a beautiful piece of transitional classical/Gothic Revival furniture , though it was obviously missing something at the top , either an additional moulding or added tracery . |
| 11 | Marshall 's hands had once made music — now they could n't — so he was perhaps punishing them with hard labour in a sort of brutal compensation . |
| 12 | The fact that such an occupation was un-likely to provide him with a living did nothing to deter him . |
| 13 | A ‘ rather terrible ’ third old lady displayed such a regularly outrageous temper that she was constantly locking herself in her room , expecting her meals to be left outside the door for her . |
| 14 | Before very long , Wilson was constantly consulting me on a number of matters and even seeking my opinion on political issues — which he wisely always rejected . |
| 15 | Now Sixsmith was gently frisking himself with a deepening frown . |
| 16 | A speechreader was naturally anticipating something about the price of leather , the usefulness of gumboots — possibly how one hops round the room on one leg pulling them off and so on . |
| 17 | The way he said it , it was as if he was only lending it to her in order to have her bring it back again , but she was forced to agree . |
| 18 | I was only doing it for the money . ’ |
| 19 | He smiled tenderly , and the knowledge that he was only doing it for the benefit of anyone who might be watching sliced deep into the very heart of her . |
| 20 | ‘ Ah , but that was when I was only pumping you for information , not giving it to you . |
| 21 | Happiness , I knew , was not something she thought much of as an end : it was as if she had said , I 'm glad you do n't mind being poor , and , although when I replied to her , it was only to tell her about the baby , Thomas , and how he had put on five pounds and had cut his first tooth , I brooded over what I might have said while I stood at the sink or pushed the pram , making great , windy speeches in my mind , venting on my absent aunt the curious , unreasonable anger that seemed to rise up before me like a dark pit , bottomless and frightening . |
| 22 | And , like the romantic fool I was , I thought Mathilda was only offering herself in an act of desperation . |
| 23 | She was only saying it as a balance . |
| 24 | As you yourself so candidly pointed out , she was only marrying me for my money — and , of course , to get out of a fix . ’ |
| 25 | She was suddenly seeing herself as a desirable young woman — a woman the famous Maître of the Maison de Verveine might have wanted to marry had he been free . |
| 26 | Britain was soon devoting something like half its national product to the war , a massive shift of resources , unthinkable in peacetime . |
| 27 | Coleridge was not only a willing listener to Southey 's ideas , but was soon developing them into grand and Utopian principles during long hours spent in Oxford ‘ disputing on metaphysical subjects ’ . |
| 28 | One male Titford of the new generation — William Charles — had left the town already ; his brother Benjamin was soon to follow him to London ; Elizabeth was now a married woman , with two as yet unmarried sisters , Mary and Sarah . |
| 29 | In any case , Twoflower was delightedly taking picture after picture of people engaged in what he described as typical activities , and since a quarter-rhinu would subsequently change hands ‘ for their trouble ’ a tail of bemused and happy nouveaux-riches was soon following him in case this madman exploded in a shower of gold . |
| 30 | He struggled to match the already competent Dave Fielding , but was soon applying himself to pecuniary areas . |