Example sentences of "[was/were] trying [verb] the [noun] " in BNC.
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| 1 | The Edinburgh Evening News picked up the point during the dispute and commented that " the old story of the men 's dislike to machinery appears in this dispute just as it was with the engineers " , 25 Whatever the reason or reasons , the men 's unwillingness to handle the machines led directly to the situation of the late 1900s in which Edinburgh master printers were trying to counter the threat of London and southern firms by combining both the employment of women and the use of machines , thus posing a double threat of a new kind to the male compositor , and inspiring a more determined resistance from the latter than had been seen during the previous thirty-odd years . |
| 2 | Meantime the British were trying to evaluate the seriousness of American proposals for decolonization or for international trusteeships as staging posts on the road from colony to self-government and independence . |
| 3 | Clare Short , Labour MP for Ladywood , who raised the issue in the Commons in January , said : ‘ I think the West Midlands Police were trying to brush the matter under the carpet and it was only pressure from MPs and the media that made them do anything . ’ |
| 4 | Under normal circumstances , understudies would be expected to attend all the rehearsals to familiarise themselves with the production , but , because Alex and Charles knew the play so well , they were given a dispensation to take most of the first week off , which would save both them and their replacements the embarrassment of the early stumbling rehearsals while the newcomers were trying to memorise the lines . |
| 5 | By " special constructions " we mean in particular cumulative lists of adjectives as in ( 12 ) , where , however , the order may be explained by the quite general if ill-defined tendency to leave " heavy " constituents to the latest possible point , as in ( 13 ) : ( 12 ) policies foreign , social and educational ( 13 ) that salesman has just come back who kept getting in the way when you were trying to vaccinate the ewes last week Postnominal associatives may also just possibly be admitted in constructions expressing sharp opposition : ( 14 ) scientists nuclear but not biological The latter type , however , is at best questionable ; and , as a good general rule , we may say that associative adjectives do not normally occur in postnominal position . |
| 6 | They were trying to tame the process that gives the hydrogen bomb its devastating power-the same process that ‘ fuels ’ the Sun and the stars . |
| 7 | The debate was fast and furious , with the city workers fighting for better conditions in the factories being strongly supported by the philanthropists , who themselves were trying to preserve the landscape . |
| 8 | The others were trying to drive the protesters away , and a fight seemed likely to break out at any minute , until a pair of uniformed police constables appeared , and stood watching them from the other side of the street . |
| 9 | It has very much the same facilities as Delta Five , but is single-user rather than allowing several people to work on the same data , and also has a lower limit on the number of records , transaction files , and so on ; nothing that would really present a problem , unless you were trying to use the system for a fairly large system , in which case you should be using Delta Five . |
| 10 | ‘ Sergeant Morris and I were trying to stop the bleeding when you came . ’ |
| 11 | She looked back once , and the March Hare and the Hatter were trying to put the Dormouse into the teapot . |
| 12 | Essentially , they were trying to examine the progress , or indeed lack of progress , of the immigrant newcomers as they tried to settle into this physical and social landscape . |
| 13 | Well we were trying to remember the lines to that and she came in and for about half an hour she gave a rendition . |
| 14 | Did you notice , Sir Edmund , when we were trying to force the door of the church , how Rachel and her mother hurried along shouting for Damien through the window ? |
| 15 | Now the reason that erm they , they were trying to promote the use of tampons was that one could n't get cotton to make cotton wool and so it was n't possible any , any erm er erm sanitary garments that were made of cotton were commandeered and used for people in essential war work or the armed forces . |
| 16 | In some ways de Gaulle and France were trying to turn the clock back . |
| 17 | At its height , 130 firefighters were trying to control the fire at Gilkes Mill in the centre of Banbury . |
| 18 | The traffic officer and colleagues were trying to arrest the men behind the Roseberry Square shopping centre in Redcar . |
| 19 | She said that we were trying to push the penis down women 's throats . ’ |
| 20 | Jacobs alleged that the Canadian and Australian delegates were trying to sabotage the election because they were interested in a north Korean decision to convene a conference in Pyongyang for all Korean politicians concerned with unification Jacobs and Hodge believed there was a communist group in UNTCOK , encouraged by Jackson and Patterson , working to promote the failure of the UN efforts and to ensure that south Korea fell into the Soviet sphere . |
| 21 | Rescuers were trying to reach the crash scene 60 miles south of Katmandu in Nepal last night — but there was little hope of finding survivors . |
| 22 | Reliable sources in Kwang Chow say the highjackers were trying to take the plane to Hong Kong , but it was forced down by military jets . |
| 23 | Hell , the first time we met you were bringing in some by-hand-of-bearer letter telling us we were trying to depose the monarchy devalue the pound and make the natives play baseball instead of cricket . |
| 24 | Friends were trying to raise the bail money last night . |
| 25 | The committee were trying to complete the links in the Routes for Riders plan at Liphook Golf Club and Passfield Common . |
| 26 | She said when she got back from court they were trying to change the locks . |
| 27 | A couple of lads who looked as if they were moonlighting from a Youth Training Scheme were trying to reglaze the window from the inside , underneath the plastic so their haircuts did n't get damp . |
| 28 | Other people were trying to locate the driver to take revenge . |
| 29 | In 1987 members of the 308 Club Sub Aqua Association were trying to locate the wreck of the Caducius , a composite sailing barque , which was iron framed , with timber decking and hull , and sheathed in brass or copper to prevent worm damage . |
| 30 | They were trying to isolate the gene that produces insulin and insert it into the nucleus of a bacterium , so that you could get a self-replicating life-form which could then be used in the treatment of diabetes , or else it could provide a source of insulin that was n't animal-derived and did n't give you rejection problems . |