Example sentences of "[pers pn] can hardly be [vb pp] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | My belief that I am in pain may be justified , perhaps , but I can hardly be said to base it on reasons , conclusive or otherwise . |
| 2 | ‘ I can hardly be blamed if the production was cancelled . ’ |
| 3 | ‘ I can hardly be expected to have a great deal of time for gardening , ’ she said , ‘ I am forced to pay out money for gardening help . ’ |
| 4 | I can hardly be expected to know that , can I ? |
| 5 | And I can hardly be expected to leave my three-year-old brother here in the care of a strange man . ’ |
| 6 | If you 've got some new material on him that you want to share with us , I 'm more than happy to arrange another lecture for you later in the term , but frankly , as you 've apparently given the same lecture on him for the past ten years , I can hardly be accused of interfering with academic freedom , can I ? ’ |
| 7 | If I go to a match in Europe , I come back to a stack of videos and I can hardly be bothered . |
| 8 | I can hardly be held accountable for the vagaries of a junior research assistant ! ’ |
| 9 | Now this is an argument that is so intellectually contemptible that you can hardly be bothered to demolish it . |
| 10 | I know you can hardly be expected to adopt all your expressions erm but you should n't be too technical in you know . |
| 11 | These ‘ activities ’ are not temporary ( more 's the pity ) but they can hardly be equated with the professor 's letter typing , which is a periodic state of affairs and will not last . |
| 12 | They are low , so low that they can hardly be called a threshold — more a ramp , with a sign over it begging ‘ Please , please walk up ’ . |
| 13 | Such combinations constitute formulaic patterns which are indeed of very frequent occurrence in language use and need to be accounted for ( as I mentioned in Chapter 3 ) but they can hardly be said to represent the total language to be taught . |
| 14 | Some words are already almost music : Shakespeare 's words are already so musical that they can hardly be set to music . |
| 15 | Their delicate character and the fact that they accompanied a woman means that they can hardly be interpreted literally as weapons . |
| 16 | Blimpish or not , they can hardly be expected to do otherwise . |
| 17 | But even though sponges can produce such miraculous complexities as this , they can hardly be counted as properly integrated multicellular animals . |
| 18 | Although the Stack Light Rifle or SLR combines the looks of a gun with part of the optical system of a camera it can hardly be rated as a precision piece of equipment . |
| 19 | Mrs Heatherton 's son John is not present today , and that will sorely disappoint all the young ladies present ; he is so handsome it can hardly be believed . ’ |
| 20 | In small birds it can hardly be rendered except as a blur of wings ; we can sometimes see their wingspread clearly when they threaten each other or quarrel at bird tables . |
| 21 | Yet governments ought to resist the temptation to dismiss peace movements as representing only a minority opinion , for it is in the nature of a wider but vaguer anxiety about the issue that it can hardly be organized or form the basis of a coherent campaign . |
| 22 | It can hardly be said that the German Empire contained Prussia . |
| 23 | It can hardly be said that his optimism was fully justified , though ironically enough the supply did become more than adequate in most seasons from the middle of the century onwards , when traffic dropped away . |
| 24 | But it can hardly be said that the relationship between the two sectors has been as mutually productive as it might be . |
| 25 | It can hardly be said that anything very surprising emerges in the pupils ’ criticism of teachers . |
| 26 | Joseph Needham 's only indexed reference to dreaming in ancient China is tantalizingly brief : Oneiromancy , or prognostication by dreams , was also practised in China , as in most ancient civilisations , though it can hardly be said to have taken a very important place there . |
| 27 | The last remark could be made of financial problems also , yet , even in these hard times , it can hardly be said that insoluble money problems beset over half the population of Britain . |
| 28 | Thus the question remains an open one , and it can hardly be said that the hotel proprietor had put his property to any special or unusually sensitive use . |
| 29 | It can hardly be said to do so any longer . |
| 30 | It can hardly be said , even using this attenuated chain of reasoning , that the harm is ‘ likely , ’ more especially when the protesters had made plain their aversion to the use of force of any kind . |