Example sentences of "had been [v-ing] [art] [noun pl] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The priest , with folded hands and closed eyes , recited Grace , and the meal began : soup served by a daughter of the same sister of Rose 's who had been taking the photos ; chicken and ham , with salad . |
| 2 | In Switzerland , which had 36,000 political asylum requests in 1990 ( and 17 per cent of whose residents were non-nationals ) , the government had been tightening the rules since February 1991 . |
| 3 | Writers , poets and bards had been telling the stories for centuries but it was not until the Victorians that a visual interpretation was recorded and that was essentially romantic and ill-informed . |
| 4 | It was now three in the afternoon , and the offensive odour had been plaguing the neighbours since 10.30 in the morning . |
| 5 | The ghillies had been gathering the herds into the area for days . |
| 6 | It was then Gedanken realized that all along she had been hearing the voices of the beetles over a loudspeaker . |
| 7 | Five of the nine practices had been collecting the types of data required by the regional health authority for several years , and all of the practices had computer systems in operation before the preparation period . |
| 8 | She had been descending the stairs when she 'd slipped and had fallen down numerous steps . |
| 9 | She had been fastening the buttons at the shoulder of Thomas 's elephant-patterned pyjamas , but all sense of co-ordination suddenly seemed to vanish and her fingers fumbled in vain . |
| 10 | While Charles had been summoning the clans to Glenfillan Sir John Cope , 100 miles [ 160 km ] away , as the crow flew , in Edinburgh — though far further even by Wade 's splendid new roads — had been making his counter-preparations . |
| 11 | Next-door neighbour Jean Beveridge , who had been given a running commentary by armed police inside her home , revealed the gunman had been daring the police to shoot him . |
| 12 | Tillett was convinced that despite its attempts to mediate , the government had been helping the employers . |
| 13 | Although he was horribly conscious of his filthy boots , he sought out the supervisor of the office cleaning company by which Mrs. Millings was employed , and explained that she was late only because she had been helping the police to investigate a river tragedy " like a good citizen " . |
| 14 | The City had been expecting the chemicals giant 's confirmation that it would be hiving off its pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals businesses to a new company , Zeneca . |
| 15 | Lorton had known who they were as soon as he 'd seen them ; he had been expecting the police , though not quite as soon as this , and in any case salesmen rarely travelled in pairs . |
| 16 | I happened to see Sir John Woods [ Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade ] tonight and he told me that Sir Stafford Cripps had been reading the minutes of Cabinet committees during his absence [ in India , where he had been for nearly four months trying to reach a settlement which would lead to independence ] and had been depressed by the amount of time and energy taken up in the Ministerial Committees with the discussion of quite minor matters which individual Ministers ought to settle in their discretion . |
| 17 | He had been reading the notes of Wittgenstein , he said , who before his death had been working on the relation between the private , sensuous experience of colour and the universal language of colour words with which we appear to be able to communicate it . |
| 18 | We had been reading the poems of a Greek poet in French translation together . |
| 19 | The combination of prophetic denunciation and broad generalization did not appeal to his contemporaries ; as one of his colleagues in the Chandos Group ( where Eliot had been discussing the matters contained in his book ) wrote later , " It is understandable that The Idea of a Christian Society should make little appeal to the large majority of the intelligentsia . |
| 20 | When interviewed by police Hardy had said he had been watching the disturbances but denied throwing missiles . |
| 21 | Whilst they had been watching the protesters , a waitress had come out of The Crossed Keys hotel on the corner of the square carrying a tray of interesting-looking glasses . |
| 22 | ‘ I du n no , ’ said Masklin , who had been watching the geese speculatively . |
| 23 | He had been watching the expressions that played across her face as she spoke , determination , enthusiasm and simple enjoyment in the challenges presented by her job . |
| 24 | As a result , Mackensen was freed to attack the northern region of Serbia ; and Bulgaria , which had been watching the fortunes of war , anxious to identify the winning side , joined the Central Powers on 6 September 1915 . |
| 25 | Slowly , like a black storm cloud that builds up ominously on a distant horizon , the second of the two Men who had been feeding the eagles advanced on Woil . |
| 26 | For the past several days , the warder said , jail authorities had been pestering the police to get more helpers … . |
| 27 | Luckily I had been doing The Clothes Show on TV and her father had seen me and knew I was reputable . |
| 28 | But when she went out , she saw the girl who had been doing the flowers waiting in the porch , and guessed that she must be the Vicar 's wife . |
| 29 | Ambulance spokesman Richard Oswick said the girl 's father had been lighting the fireworks at the back of the house in Blisworth Street , Seaforth . |
| 30 | TriQuint had been making the chips designed by Gazelle 's researchers , and its name was retained by the new company , which last year had a turnover of about $30 million and showed a small profit . |