Example sentences of "were [not/n't] [prep] [art] [noun sg] " in BNC.

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1 The new men of the Kremlin were not above the simplicity of taking a former idea and adapting it to their needs .
2 Those of them which were not about the Englishman 's standard of living ( no peasant wooden shoes and no Irish potatoes ) were shared by many of the " middling people " ; these were the issues and they were more important than any lingering popular Jacobitism , although that sentiment certainly existed .
3 A pity , in a way , that the dancing would be merely metaphorical : this was a house large enough to accommodate dancing , but their friends were not of the dancing classes , would gaze in astonishment , alarm , sophisticated horror , intellectual condemnation , at dancing in a private house … another year , perhaps , for the dancing .
4 He would have been happier with a committee , but the owners , of whom several rented rather than owned their boats , were not of the substance from which committees are formed .
5 There must be equality of rights for all citizens regardless of nationality ; and there could be no excuse for discrimination against any of them , nor for ‘ extremist gatherings ’ which had terrorised local people who were not of the majority affiliation .
6 It is not quite clear what he meant by this ; the point may well be not that the new kings — Eardwulf in Northumbria , and Coenwulf in Mercia — were of non-royal stock but that they were not of the lineage , respectively , of Aethelred and Offa — but it could easily be construed as a slur .
7 A similar distinction lies at the base of J. R. Walsh 's treatment of the muftis : doubtless writing about a period later than that under consideration in the present study , he states , in regard to what Hezarfen would call the that aside from the occasional retired kadi or " a member of one of the local learned families in the larger cities , … the were not of the class " .
8 Perhaps the jeweller she kept house for could read , but the things Sarah wanted to say were not for a stranger 's eyes .
9 The foregoing would , of course , mean that property rights were not for the dispensation of some imagined ‘ god ’ of early superstitious religion , but existed by virtue of the fact that human beings have , in the course of time , generally agreed that such a right was ‘ good ’ , for the reason that without it there could be no peaceful existence and no contentment .
10 The Rev Aaron Longwe , who has been detained and tortured by the regime for speaking out about corruption , told a gathering of former missionaries at the Kirk 's headquarters in Edinburgh : ‘ If it were not for the Church of Scotland some of us would have been dead by now . ’
11 Well , Mrs. Jewkes , if it were not for the thought of that cursed parson I believe in my heart , so great is my weakness , that I could yet forgive this intriguing little slut and take her to my bosom .
12 If it were not for the possibility of physical delivery of the underlying cash market good by the seller of the futures contract to the buyer , there would be no mechanism to guarantee convergence of futures and spot prices .
13 He also remarked , significantly : If it were not for the Union , I venture to think that women would be all over the London trade .
14 Any cheers that met his statement — which was not heard in silence — were not for the General-Secretary but for his concessions .
15 Ironically , the Great War would not have been the war that it was if it were not for the machine .
16 If it were not for the fact that he was one of the favourites you 'd have been delighted but as a Gold Cup winner I had to feel a bit disappointed .
17 This would be a useful feature if it were not for the fact that a certain amount of vaginal discharge is perfectly normal and natural for a woman in her reproductive years ; and what is more , this natural discharge is subject to a fair amount of variation depending on the stage of the menstrual cycle .
18 This would not matter very much ( for it would always be possible for individual candidates to prove the expectation wrong ) , if it were not for the fact that whole papers in the final examination , or certain questions on papers , are to be ‘ differentiated ’ .
19 But why ( if it were not for the fact that one is a Christian ) should one be wanting to stay with the experience of women within the biblical tradition ?
20 He did not enjoy such visits now , and would have been tempted to abandon them if it were not for the fact that people might gossip .
21 From what has been said above , it will be clear that the Oxford English Dictionary Department would not be what it is , if it were not for the Supplement project lying at the heart of its work .
22 He would have laughed if it were not for the echo of the screaming in his head .
23 The clumsiness is evident in the standard of ‘ the reasonable man ’ , an anthropomorphic ( and male ) standard which might be taken to suggest a paragon of virtue if it were not for the context of partially exculpating a killing by such a person .
24 It would be idle to speculate on what the figures might have been if it were not for the security situation .
25 It is rather unexpectedly glutinous and flabby to the touch — all-in-all rather unpleasant , if it were not for the splash of vivid yellow it gives to an otherwise sombre winter hedgerow .
26 That was removed from 16 to 18-year-olds who were not on a Government course or in full-time education .
27 Our duels were not on the scale of the later Clarke versus Prescott battles , where in the 1987 general election I saw a television chairman leave his chair several times to restore order .
28 The people that were left behind such as the section leaders — the gunnery leader , flight engineer leader , navigation leader and one or two people that were not on the battle order for that night , would meet these people and speak to them .
29 I was once offered a John Wesley letter which had the slight blemish of being written on paper watermarked some thirty years after the evangelist died , and on another occasion a letter from a supposed Trafalgar seaman , mentioning officers and members of the crew who were not on the muster roll of the ship concerned .
30 One of the odder aspects of the 1992 election was the anecdotal evidence from polling station officers who reported to the Market Research Society that many people tried to vote , but only discovered that they were not on the register when they got to the polling station .
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