Example sentences of "it [was/were] the [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Yes , I think that the crucial thing that 's emerging , especially from the area of artificial intelligence , is that we 're beginning to understand that what the name of the game is getting people to express their intentions , and for a long time we 've been , as it were , stuck in languages that do n't really help you to do that and we 're really beginning to understand now that erm what people are doing when they program indeed , I mean as it were the ace programmers , are expressing their intention for whatever 's to be done in the task the computer 's to perform clearly . |
| 2 | I think it were the Irish Times or something , or the Irish Betting Times or something like that , and she was the only one who did n't draw a horse , and she thought oh well that 's it , no chance . |
| 3 | However , some 25 feet down there is a side-door , which opens into passage 24 as if it were the eastern door in the Throne Room . |
| 4 | Money and how to get hold of it were the perennial problems that refused to go away . |
| 5 | Within it were the strong echoes of the disgust with politics that McCarthyism had induced , and the early excitement of the Beats and their progeny in Greenwich Village . |
| 6 | Loosely linked to it were the emerging environmentalist movements ( the link being forged by a deep suspicion of advanced technology which had raised the spectre of nuclear holocaust and then manifested itself in the devastation inflicted on Vietnam ) . |
| 7 | Pitted against it were the great princes , some with ambition to achieve political and legal independence of the crown . |
| 8 | The fleapit at the centre of another Rose script , The Smallest Show on Earth ( 1957 , Big Time Operators in US ) , directed by Ealing 's Basil Dearden , is eventually burnt to the ground by its old commissionaire : ‘ It were the only way were n't it ’ , he says to the cooing couple who inherited the place in a town stinking of glue from the local factory , together with staff so lost in the past that they still enjoy looking at Hepworth 's Comin ’ Thro ’ The Rye . |
| 9 | The tactic used by the Commission for passing the Single European Act was to present it to the member states as if it were the only thing on offer : either take this or leave the Community . |
| 10 | Twenty five years later , Bevan expressed his hostility to the EEC in terms redolent with the memory of 1930 : ‘ Are we now expected to go back almost a century , reject socialism , and clasp free trade to our bosom as though it were the only solution of our social evils ? ’ |
| 11 | America has lost patience with the Vance-Owen plan , and now rattles the ‘ lift and strike ’ strategy as if it were the only weapon in its armoury . |
| 12 | The present system , might be defensible if it were the only means by which the Chancellor could sustain tax revenue from alcoholic drinks in real terms . |
| 13 | ITN 's News at Ten homes in on Big Ben as if it were the only part of London that mattered . |
| 14 | She glared at the telephone dial as if it were the young man 's face and held the receiver away from her ear . |
| 15 | Er I do n't know whether it were the young lad that comes in , or whether it was Jes that were telling me . |
| 16 | In the typical scenario erm you have the parents as villains of the peace , you have the children or the child as being abused , you have ah typically in the er as it were the stereotypical scenario , you have the father doing the abuse , you have a certain amount of responsibility pointed at the mother . |
| 17 | Wullie Robertson , who was bleeding at the nose , was carrying a banner wrapped around a pole , as if it were the regimental standard of the Gordons . |
| 18 | There were a few obvious English tourists , but even more elderly Italians , and even a few young couples , as if it were the fashionable thing to do . |
| 19 | The small khat traders from Djibouti , who travel the route as if it were the local bus , shrieked and angrily rearranged their shawls and robes . |
| 20 | All shareware disks contain a manual that can be printed , which means you are using the program just as if it were the full priced product . |
| 21 | Standing on it were the leading American money-winner , Bob Stein , and the film actor Buck Finnegan , famous for his tough-guy roles . |
| 22 | A takeover was under way by the grey men and the only ones who survived it were the grey people . |
| 23 | By the eighteenth century growing sugar and carrying out the first stages of refining it were the main economic activities on the islands . |
| 24 | At the same time he has no political authority , er , representing as it were the British government , he 's just an individual of stature , and he 's got the time and the energy to do it . |
| 25 | New and expanded towns experienced the highest rates of population growth in the 1950s and 1960s , but in absolute terms it was the medium-sized cities , like Bristol , Leicester , and Southampton , which made the biggest contribution to overall population increase . |
| 26 | While his loyalism gave him urban working-class support , it was the rural Protestants who were most receptive to his evangelical emphases and who made a seat like Bannside obviously attractive . |
| 27 | But it was the final stage in the history of circumcision which was to have the most far-reaching implications for the woman and her role in the society and religion of her people . |
| 28 | The final great act — for everyone thought it was the final act — took place on 16 November . |
| 29 | It was the final ignominy in the short , troubled history of the club that nearly made it to the First Division . |
| 30 | Although he had dallied with other performers , this time it was the final straw for Ethel — this one , she considered , was rotten at her job ! |