Example sentences of "was so [adj] [art] [noun sg] " in BNC.

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1 The fact that Paris was so rich a source of books — from de luxe manuscripts to ‘ soiled tracts and battered codices ’ — in part stemmed from its position and reputation as the greatest northern European centre of learning .
2 The end result was so close a finish that , for the moment , the result is being declared a dead heat with birds recording a velocity of 1173 .
3 His employer , Oscar Godolphin , was one of the eleven to whom the flame of Roxborough 's intent had been passed , though of all of them surely none was so perfect a hypocrite as Godolphin , who was both a member of a Society committed to the repression of all magical activity , and the employer ( Godolphin would have said owner ) of a creature summoned by magic in the very year of the tragedy that had brought the Society into being .
4 Alcuin [ q.v. ] says that Offa shed much blood to secure Ecgfrith 's position , and if this refers to a purge of the royal kindred may explain why Cenwulf was so distant a relative .
5 To share in it was so distinctive a mark of membership that , in time of persecution in the second and third centuries , pieces of the consecrated bread were taken round to baptized believers languishing in prison or on a sickbed .
6 This was clear in ‘ Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme ’ , which was so memorable a success at our 1985 Festival .
7 Cromer dominated Egypt , not because England gave him force , or because Egypt loved us , but because he was so good a man . ’
8 Irwin had triumphed because , as Lawrence had said of Cromer , ‘ he was so good a man ’ .
9 Hitcham , furthermore , which contained only seven taxpayers , was so insignificant a place it was surveyed jointly with Dorney , and we can readily imagine the constable becoming confused and forgetting to insert the name of the juvenile lord of the smaller township ; anyone subsequently checking the certificate could be forgiven for failing to realise that the first line referred to the lord of Dorney only .
10 As it was so worthwhile a visit , we would like to know where the largest Aquarium is — can you help please ?
11 During the hundred fifty years in question , there was so great a diversity of views about nature that , on closer inspection , it becomes difficult to achieve a succinct characterization .
12 With the proliferation of puritan sects during the 1640s and 1650s , there was so great a range of extreme demands , from the nationalization of land to the emancipation of women , that it would be surprising if the natural philosophers had not begun to appear as moderates .
13 Yet it was so great a task that only Zeus , chief of the gods , could master it .
14 He would swing from a despairing belief that he was so great a sinner that it was too late to hope to go to Heaven , to elation as he overcame his great vice of swearing and started to read the Bible .
15 Marx 's son-in-law Edward Aveling was so great an enthusiast that his death was noted in Wisden , and nearer to our own times C.L.R. James attained guru status to West Indian followers of both Leon Trotsky and George Headley .
16 All these reasons serve to explain why this study concentrates mainly upon the attitudes to death that prevailed in the middle-class , whose irresistible rise was so prominent a feature of the nineteenth century .
17 But in performing their tasks all both reflected and further promoted the territorialization of power which was so prominent a feature of the eleventh century political scene .
18 This was the normal relaxation of a king 's leisure : Henry I of Germany was so keen a huntsman that he ‘ would take forty or more wild beasts in a day ’ ; the Norman kings turned a substantial proportion of their kingdom into game preserves ; hunting was the natural sport of a militant aristocracy , venting on animals the energy and spleen left over from fighting their own kind .
19 He was so strong a character — and he meant so much to me — that although it 's many many years since I worked with him , he was in a way always there — it has been a strength in reserve — that there was Basil if you needed him .
20 It was so dark a blue as to be almost black , with button-down cuffs and epaulettes and a broad welt that fastened around his hips with a buckle .
21 ‘ I expect he cursed me when he cursed Pat , only I was so healthy the effect was delayed , or perhaps my rotten paintings were the effect , and I only see it now .
22 ‘ You know , you ca n't believe she 's the same child that was so polite a couple of years ago .
23 This was so serious a threat to their efficiency , especially in wartime , that officers and NCOs had to spend much of their energies in checking and forestalling possible efforts by their men to desert .
24 The road was so hot the tarmac was melting .
25 Although it was so hot the sky was grey and low , not an evening to raise the spirits .
26 But Welsh and English alike took care to put their valuables and their armour , if they had any , safely under lock and key , for if the returning troops were to be billeted in the town , even for a few nights , there would certainly be some looting , and no sane burgess was so loyal a king 's man as to be complacent about losing goods and gear without a struggle to preserve them .
27 ‘ Read a good book … but I was so frightened the print danced . ’
28 Rita confessed her frock had come from a Beverly Hills shop which was so snooty the assistant asked her if she had an appointment : ‘ I asked , ‘ Why , do the dresses have something else to do ? ’ ’
29 ‘ And it was so windy the tent nearly blew away ! ’
30 Political management in a county setting was conducted by different methods from the outright bribery which was so significant a tool of burgh politicians .
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