Example sentences of "had [been] [adv] a " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Raising the £6.5 million , ‘ the largest sum ever attracted by a radical project in Britain' according to the publicity blurb , had been either a heroic achievement by selfless , dedicated humanitarians or the blag of the century . |
| 2 | At first , like her many other activities , the home maintenance course at the Adult Education Centre had been just a desperate device to take her away from the boredom of George . |
| 3 | The sixth , published in 1752 and dedicated to the Earl of Northumberland , had an elaborate frontispiece ( hitherto it had been just a large formal garden with a plantation in the distance ) etched and engraved by Edward Rooker ( 1711–74 ) , after a drawing by Samuel Wade of an allegorical group showing Britannia receiving the fruits of the earth . |
| 4 | One more story about O : he told me ( it was as if he was trying to explain the oddity of his lovemaking to me , as if he was trying to account for or apologise for the way he 'd treated me , or perhaps to reassure me concerning the effect he 'd had on me , I do n't know ) , in the morning he told me that there was one man , this had been just a couple of years previously , there was one man who had summoned him to his bedside to be counted amongst a farewell gathering of lovers , dear friends and great passions . |
| 5 | At that time the settlement of Cape Town , which had been just a small staging post on the voyage between the Netherlands and the East Indies , was beginning to grow , but although the English had occupied the Cape in 1806 , the white population remained mainly Dutch until the arrival of many new settlers from Britain in 1820 . |
| 6 | When local police were told of two female bodies on the beach , it had been just a nuisance . |
| 7 | The mainland campaign had been just a foretaste of what might be coming , he said . |
| 8 | The mainland campaign had been just a foretaste of what might be coming in the next two months , said RUC Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annesley . |
| 9 | But it had been just a momentary longing for something she seemed destined never to have . |
| 10 | But poverty had been just a word , an image on a screen — until now . |
| 11 | The chilli also meant that Praeger had been just a wire man with orders not to kill anybody who came at him just blind them and run . |
| 12 | She had told him how Karen had gone half stupid over Mallachy , when it had been just a one-night stand , a one-night stand that did not , in the event , come off . |
| 13 | Craig stared into the fire , it had been over a week since he had escaped from the prison , lying in the back of the van , smelling the fresh mouthwatering tang of bread and listening to the clip clop of the horses ’ hooves . |
| 14 | It had been over a year since Katherine had seen him and again she was struck by the magnetism of those coal dark eyes , the indolence of his gestures as he took her hand and playfully brought it to his lips . |
| 15 | In truth , the last time had been over a year ago . |
| 16 | It had been scarcely a quarter smoked ! |
| 17 | How last year the crop had meant nothing to him at all ; how , without understanding , he had walked about the harbour and warehouses of Episkopi , and the misuse of the Order 's cargo of sugar had been simply a matter noted and used as a playing-counter . |
| 18 | Aisha had been both a tribal companion to the Sheikha and a ‘ nanny ’ to her children . |
| 19 | The seduction that had followed had been both a homage and a revenge ; an attempt to control someone who exercised an authority over him that defied analysis . |
| 20 | There had been rather a mystery as to why he should have died at that particular time . |
| 21 | She could remember the bra , it had been rather a good black lace wired Kayser Bondor , of a line that appeared to have been discontinued , as she 'd never been able to find another . |
| 22 | There had been rather a lot of funerals at Low Birk Hatt and they were n't inexpensive . |
| 23 | On April 25 this reported that the security forces were to blame for provoking violence from what had been previously a peaceful crowd by making baton charges . |
| 24 | He had been dead a week before they realized he was n't breathing . |
| 25 | ( I 'm pretty certain I never believed that one , I mean the guy had been dead a week , for Pete 's sake . |
| 26 | Darren had been dead a couple of months ; I had fallen out with my father and I 'd been in London for most of the summer , staying with Aunt Ilsa and her long-term companion , whose only name appeared to be Mr Gibbon , which I thought made him sound like a cat for some reason … |
| 27 | Membership of the ILP had been largely a formality for the remaining four-fifths of the original group , though some active ILP members like Dr Alfred Salter and Emanuel Shinwell were among those severing their connections with the party . |
| 28 | By November 1917 , when the battle ended , there had been nearly a quarter of a million casualties . |
| 29 | She 'd lived without carpets for the first few weeks and it had been nearly a year before she 'd been able to ditch her old and undersized curtains . |
| 30 | It had been nearly a year ago , when the postman had delivered a letter postmarked Venice to the little cottage in Wales she had shared with her grandmother . |