Example sentences of "had been [to-vb] the [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | One alternative option had been to preserve the house as a burnt-out ruin . |
| 2 | On one occasion after they had been to see the film Odd Man Out , thick fog prevented Bobby returning home to Blackheath . |
| 3 | He remembered the last time he had been to see the dentist . |
| 4 | She had been to see the inspector in charge of her father 's murder case . |
| 5 | The 17-member Co-Ordinating Committee on Multilateral Export Controls ( COCOM ) , the body whose main role had been to regulate the sale of Western technology to communist countries , agreed in Paris on June 1-2 to invite the former Soviet republics to join its newly established COCOM Co-Operation Forum on Export Controls . |
| 6 | This act left him with an interest in the company that was for most practical purposes worthless since the previous practice among the three member-directors had been to take the money out of the firm in the form of directors ' fees rather than shareholders ' dividends . |
| 7 | The man of the world was not as interested as he should have been ; I had become quicker in some respects , mostly practical , but the price for this had been to lose the ability to make other connections . |
| 8 | Laing 's response to this extraordinary solidarity from a colleague , and in outrage at losing his money , had been to spend the night in the Jeddah branch falsifying the records to ‘ prove ’ that a much larger sum had been embezzled with the co-operation of Steve Pyle himself . |
| 9 | The intention had been to give the premiere of Sea Change at Sadler 's Wells to open the Theatre Ballet 's new season there , but it was thought that by then John would already have left for New York to take part in the Sadler 's Wells Ballet 's first American tour , so the decision was made to present the ballet first on 18 July 1949 at the Gaiety Theatre , Dublin , where the company concluded its summer tour . |
| 10 | His charm , his little anecdotes , even this scene played in the velvet darkness — all of it had been to answer the challenge she 'd so foolishly set before him . |
| 11 | He retorted that the choice had been to close the paper and he wished he had done that because it would have been remembered as a decent publication . |
| 12 | Clearly Dorothy 's principal intention had been to record the apple harvest — a prodigious one ; Helen 's presence was incidental , like one of those figures introduced for purposes of scale or composition . |
| 13 | Held , dismissing the appeal , that the object of the substituted section 9 of the Wills Act 1837 had been to simplify the requirements for the execution and witnessing of a will ; that the complementary requirements , of a signature and of an intention that the signature should give effect to the will , demanded a practical approach ; that a written name , not being a normal signature , was capable of being a signature for the purposes of section 9 ; but that where a testamentary document was signed before the dispositive provisions had been written , affirmative evidence was necessary to show that the testator had intended the signature to give effect to the provisions ; that by writing his name and the dispositive provisions in one single operation the deceased had provided such evidence ; and that , accordingly , the will had been duly executed ; but that , on the evidence , the deputy judge had been entitled to conclude that the onus on the defendants of establishing the testamentary capacity of the deceased had not been discharged ( post , pp. 588B–H , 589B–F , 592A–C ) . |
| 14 | A captured guerrilla said that the aim of the attack had been to undermine the visit of Pope Jean-Paul II which was due in early September [ see p. 37732 ] . |
| 15 | A hundred years of missionary effort had failed utterly ; its only effect had been to confirm the Abyssinians in their attachment to their ancient faith and to sow in them the seeds of xenophobia . |
| 16 | Her aim had been to get the girls excited about mathematics , and to give them confidence in their own ability . |
| 17 | He added that the MBR 's task at the time of the coup had been to establish the basis " for a profound transformation … in the juridical-political and socio-economic areas " . |
| 18 | It was not so much a guidance note as a review ; the Committee 's terms of reference had been to consider the design and layout most appropriate to various types of roads in built-up areas , with due regard to safety , the free Mow of road traffic , economy and the requirements of town planning , and to make recommendations . |
| 19 | He did n't tell her how difficult it had been to withstand the pain they inflicted on him . |
| 20 | For at least twenty-five years , Western policy had been to help the Shah destroy all alternatives to his own rule . |
| 21 | It is incredible that my challenge in tournaments so often during this time had been to make the cut . |
| 22 | His first choice had been to combine the Tchaikovsky concerto with a complete recording of the composer 's Souvenir d'un lieu cher ( Op. 42 ) , in the orchestrated version by Glazunov . |
| 23 | Wilson quickly realised how lucky she had been to have the Misses Wynne directed to her by kind Miss Blagden . |
| 24 | This was a backward step , since one of the goals of the Ministry had been to increase the proportion of trained teachers through in-service training to upgrade ‘ empirical ’ teachers , as well as by initial teacher training . |
| 25 | The government 's answer had been to increase the responsibilities and accountability of management and put a good deal of political energy into the efficiency strategy . |
| 26 | The most nerve-racking part in the end had been to locate the site of the graves . |
| 27 | Their job had been to locate the communications nerve-centres surrounding Bremen . |
| 28 | St Petersburg 's major diplomatic goal had been to nullify the clauses of the Treaty of Paris which had disarmed Russia on the Black Sea . |
| 29 | One of the first rules of house and hall parties had been to scout the building for dark corners that might make useful retiring-places if the evening went well — preference was given to anywhere that had a lock on the inside . |
| 30 | Godard 's intention had been to accompany the reading with its author descending stairs , naked , in order to confront the viewer , it was assumed , with the contrast between argument , theory , and the sexual objectification of women . |