Example sentences of "had [been] [v-ing] the [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Reuben Boll had been taking the last part of his annual leave . |
| 2 | However , now that the papers had been reporting the recent news of her husband 's return from Australia — apparently determined to impress his name and tough personality on the City of London — it was obviously about time that she came to a decision about her future . |
| 3 | All through the first part of the interview — the crazy part , when she had been talking about seeing her son in the house — Hank had been telling the straight truth . |
| 4 | ‘ Hello , love , ’ said her father , coming in from the kitchen where he had been shelling the succulent fresh prawns that would form part of a cold seafood and salad lunch , before the hot turkey dinner this evening . |
| 5 | Reading it , the British discovered that they had been speaking the imperial equivalent of prose all their lives . |
| 6 | At the direction of his lance master , he had been patrolling the ancient forest of Haling Heart , south of Scaraby , for three seasons and had found no quests with which to occupy himself , never mind accrue funds for the order . |
| 7 | Rauschning also began to realise that Gauleiter Forster had been using the economic reforms initiated by the Party in 1933 to line his own pocket . |
| 8 | John Rodwell , a specialist inspector from the Health and Safety Executive , said it appeared Mr Eaton had been using the burning torch to cut at the edge of the slot at one end of the pipe trying to open it and hot gases could have caused it to become dislodged and fall . |
| 9 | His case was that he had been using the public lavatory for proper purposes when the the police burst into his cubicle and arrested him , and that he had had no contact of any kind with the co-defendant . |
| 10 | For a while I had been ringing the Lost Property office at Queen Street station each week , still pathetically hoping that the bag with Uncle Rory 's poems and Darren Watt 's Möbius scarf would somehow miraculously turn up again . |
| 11 | Three navy helicopters had been searching the Manx coastline where the Gloucester had been moored , and where the two radio operators were last seen . |
| 12 | This reminds me of the story about the old lady who boasted she had been wearing the same pair of stockings for twenty years — one year she knitted new feet on them and the next new legs ! |
| 13 | The final southbound working to run over the section from Dunford to Sheffield consisted of class 20 No. 20004 and a brake conveying a party of contractors who had been inspecting the remaining part of the route west of Penistone . |
| 14 | A young French assistant , who had been holding the white horse on which Duclos ranged the plantation each day , stepped forward at a signal from him and steadied the animal while he mounted . |
| 15 | They have a superior front five , although the Pontypridd lock Mark Rowley had been getting the better of several big names lately and will relish the prospect of testing himself against Tony Copsey . |
| 16 | Since about mid-June , the Khmers Rouges had been refusing the chief co-ordinator of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia ( UNTAC ) , Yasushi Akashi , access to areas they controlled around Pailin , reports said , even though the peace agreement , which they had signed together with the three other factions , gave him authority to travel anywhere . |
| 17 | Forestry interests and landowners in Scotland had been lobbying the Scottish Office to draw the teeth of the NCC because it had been too successful in defending the uplands from conifers . |
| 18 | A large woman of formidable appearance , who had been passing the open door of the coffee lounge and whose attention had been caught by Amaranth 's evident distress , came over to them . |
| 19 | We had been conducting the German youths on tours of our favourite places in the city — to the bullring , the restaurants , the bars , the River Tormes , the Casa de Santa Teresa , the Antiguo Colegio Mayor de Iriandeses , San Martin ( where we were nearly locked in for the night ) and to the conventual church of San Esteban . |
| 20 | He had given up writing poetry and had been living the duplicitous life of a critic deciphering his own works , but when he fell in love with Howard 's wife Elizabeth his former self was reawakened and he ceased to believe in his own existence . |
| 21 | More distressingly , we discovered that the Aru islands and the Greater Bird of Paradise were no longer on their trading routes and that for the last twenty years they had been pursuing the shorter and more profitable triangular passage between Celebes , Java and Borneo . |
| 22 | Even when the results came through and the babies were exchanged in a dramatic midnight meeting , Marie found it difficult to believe that she had been nursing the wrong child . |
| 23 | Diana , who had been expecting the two boys to join her at Althorp in Northamptonshire today , phoned them briefly yesterday morning . |
| 24 | If Patrick had been expecting the small man to head up Grafton Street , then he was disappointed ; the guide continued on past the bottom of the crowded street , passing Yeates & Son , the opticians with the giant spectacle frame hanging outside the shop , heading into Nassau Street and then he turned right into Dawson Street . |
| 25 | There were those amongst his small circle of intimates who said it would be his undoing , but they or their predecessors had been prophesying the same for three decades , and Klein had out-prospered every one of them . |
| 26 | Sammy , who had been watching the slight twitching movements that Willie had made in his sleep , now stood at his feet . |
| 27 | Britta had been watching the other woman — the one the Doctor called Benny — when the screens had come on . |
| 28 | When his case finally came up the evidence of the couple 's daughter , who had been watching the whole incident , was torn to shreds by Russell 's lawyer . |
| 29 | Omagh boss Paul Kee had been chasing the tall Limerick central defender for more than a fortnight . |
| 30 | He had been sensing the red death for many days . |