Example sentences of "have been the [num ord] [to-vb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | As Branson would have been the first to acknowledge , common sense dictated that he avoid it at all costs . |
| 2 | What 's more , I would have been the first to complain . |
| 3 | Just such a sentry must have been the first to die , the night the Welsh came . |
| 4 | The preceding section ( as Tolkien would have been the first to declare ) probably falls into the perennial academic vice of neatness , over-valuing system and ‘ invention ’ instead of ‘ inspiration ’ . |
| 5 | The giant herbivorous dinosaurs would have been the first to go , as plant matter became scarce , but they would soon be followed by the large carnivores that had preyed upon them . |
| 6 | Of all these expanding emotions , the one which we call compassion , may have been the first to emerge and could be the one of greatest importance , but the origins of all of them could almost certainly be found far back in evolutionary time . |
| 7 | The 6000 surviving Orang Asli are divisible into three groups : the 2000 nomadic foraging and trading Semang ( who may have been the first to arrive ) , with temporary camps in the forest ; the Senoi with shifting cultivation ; the Proto-Malays who replace the forest with their own gardens and fruit trees . |
| 8 | I would have been the first to know . ’ |
| 9 | ‘ My father would have been the first to have congratulated him if he had been here , ’ he said . |
| 10 | ‘ It is 30 years since my father 's first victory here and I am sure he would have been the first to have congratulated Ayrton on breaking his record of five wins . |
| 11 | While his passion for theology seems to have pre-occupied him mainly during his period as a cardinal , he would not have been the first to have changed the direction of his interests when more practical challenges came his way . |
| 12 | He must have been the last to drink it . |