Example sentences of "what [modal v] [vb infin] been a " in BNC.
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| 1 | And there is a point of view from which Ronald Fraser might be seen as a man of Marxist leanings who paid a professional adviser what may have been a fair whack of a working man 's wages to enquire with him into the deficiencies of his affective life . |
| 2 | There was what may have been a bishop 's mitre on the skull , which grinned amiably up at us . |
| 3 | All these factors reduce the response rate , no matter how good the original sample may have been , so that what may have been a reasonable one-in-five sample to begin with ends up as nearer one-in-ten actually obtained , because of losses . |
| 4 | FEBRUARY , May and August could be seen as rehearsals for November 's main event so that what may have been a series of happenings in these months could lead to November 's denouement . |
| 5 | The other man was found dead nearby , he too had been shot in what may have been a drugs related killing . |
| 6 | In such moments he was not himself , for age had quelled the turbulent spirit , and tamed what must have been a fierce temper indeed … . |
| 7 | During the terrible siege of Leningrad in the last war supplies were eventually conveyed to the starving thousands on carts from Finland across the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland ( it was fortunately an exceptionally cold winter ) — what must have been a fearsome journey . |
| 8 | In the same period , Arthur Young , subsidized by the big landlords to promote agricultural improvement , put his finger on what must have been a general attitude , when he described cattle-stealers in the Lincolnshire fens : ‘ So wild a country nurses up a race of people as wild as the fen , and thus the morals and eternal welfare of numbers are hazarded and ruined for want of an inclosure . ’ |
| 9 | To his absolute delight the first trap had held what must have been a seven pound salmon , plus a couple of mullet which he had ignored . |
| 10 | There is a crack around most of the head in what must have been a horizontal line at the time of casting . |
| 11 | He even came across a restricted locality where lived a colony of what must have been a new sub-species of the extremely rare , Small Mountain Ringlet butterfly , for they were at a much reduced altitude to their normal haunts , and altogether smaller than the regular species . |
| 12 | Little is known of the inhabitants of the old manor house with its interesting architecture in the centre of the village , but the oddly named Hanging Grimston is within the parish , and here the Bouchier family lived in what must have been a grand castle with cottages nearby , and owned much land . |
| 13 | And he did so at what must have been a very fashionable address : 36 Wilmington Square , Spa Fields , peopled with Esquires and seemingly rather an unlikely location for such an enterprise . |
| 14 | One of the rusting iron pipes fastened to the shed wall and apparently coming from what remained of the old boilerhouse inside , had a plate affixed to it , near the stump of what must have been a water stop valve . |
| 15 | Peter clearly took to heart what must have been a challenging and potentially testing message . |
| 16 | Although Wheeler was never particularly interested in Roman pottery , he demonstrated the way it could be used to date construc-tional sequences on the Welsh forts , and it is unfortunate that this was not developed in his work at Verulamium , where what must have been a very small proportion of the pottery was published in the Report of 1936 ( Wheeler and Wheeler , 1936 ) . |
| 17 | From the Korthaus collection : a Böttger flared white beaker-vase , circa 1720 , estimate £10–15,000 sold for £45,000 ( $76,900 ) to a private collector with a dealer as the underbidder ; a Meissen silver-gilt mounted gold-ground blue-and-white cylindrical tankard , circa 1730 , estimate £6–8,000 : surprisingly for its quality bought-in at £4,500 ; sold after the sale for what must have been a bargain price ; a Meissen circular tureen and cover with fish handles , circa 1728 , sold to a private collector for £30,000 ( $51,270 ) , estimate £12–18,000 . |
| 18 | At one end was a bed — a double bed , I noticed — and a huge wardrobe ; at the other , a closed door led through into what must have been a very small room , a dressing-room perhaps . |
| 19 | It is also worth speculating on the fate of what must have been a nonplussed Christopher Chryselius , Sir John Pennington must have been thoroughly annoyed at the outcome , too . |
| 20 | I think that for once we need feel no qualms in taking Diodorus as a faithful epitomizer of what must have been a compact and careful section of Posidonius on the slave war in Sicily . |
| 21 | Her eyes widened and for a moment she looked scared , but her model 's training stood her in good stead and she showed no other sign of what must have been a shock . |
| 22 | I suspect you were disguised as a personable young man , a merry companion for the Gascons , after what must have been a long and gruelling journey . |
| 23 | Please pass on my congratulations to the Editor and his team for what must have been a considerable amount of sustained commitment , in producing such a high quality publication for the benefit of all members and the industry in general . ’ |
| 24 | A big cat that has only recently gone extinct is the sabre-tooth ( " tiger " ) , named after its colossal canine teeth which jutted down from the upper jaw in the front of what must have been a terrifying gape . |
| 25 | Those trapped in the crush at Hillsborough who were fortunate enough to escape without injury have no claim in respect of the distress they suffered in what must have been a truly terrifying experience . |
| 26 | what , but , it 's about the Co-Op , I went to the Co-Op in me dream , nothing but have on , and I was getting some of them what must have been a monthly thing |
| 27 | Shallow , samey gameplay ruins what should 've been a really rad game . |
| 28 | And what should have been a piece of gaily irresponsible nonsense becomes impregnated with evil . ’ |
| 29 | What should have been a routine exercise in extending the Government 's borrowing power to $3.1 thousand billion became bogged down in wrangling over legislative initiatives lawmakers wanted to attach to the bill . |
| 30 | WHEN HUNDREDS of nuclear engineers came together for what should have been a festive shindig last week , there was universal gloom . |