Example sentences of "were [verb] to [verb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The power to inflict this punishment was taken away from police courts , and district courts were limited to ordering a total of twenty-five lashes . |
| 2 | Except for a sports day once a year , their activities were limited to parading up and down . |
| 3 | After the rebellion of 1817 — 18 the judicial powers of headmen were limited to trying petty cases . |
| 4 | Moments alone were limited to climbing his tenement stairs , smelling different cooking smells on each landing . |
| 5 | The appellant had been sentenced to a term of detention which took effect as a sentence of 12 months ' detention in a young offender institution , and the Court 's powers were limited to declaring that that was the effect of the sentence passed by the Crown Court . |
| 6 | Surrounding roads were jammed and buses were filled to over-flowing as commuters switched from Underground lines following the coded warning . |
| 7 | For the remainder of that summer churches were filled to overflowing and numerous conversions took place . |
| 8 | This scheme , open to all forms of misuse and fraudulent practices , was eventually stopped in 1984 , but not before several huge stores spread around the country were filled to bursting point with works of art for which there was no destination , no demand and no adequate storage facilities . |
| 9 | It is a curious turn around from the days when bondholders pleased to be bought out and were driving to drawing lots ! |
| 10 | The hares on the down , stupid and torpid with cold , were resigned to sinking further and further into the freezing heart of snow and silence . |
| 11 | Mr Lamont insisted that the Conservatives were committed to helping the poorest families over VAT on domestic fuels . |
| 12 | After the breakdown of relations with China in 1978/79 , conditions deteriorated further as Chinese and Western aid was withdrawn and military resources were committed to toppling the Pol Pot government in Cambodia and defending the Chinese border . |
| 13 | French commanders were committed to wearying hunting operations , with bad maps and no help from the peasantry ; guerrilla screens thickened the fog of war ; important dispatches fell into the hands of Wellington 's intelligence officers . |
| 14 | The twelfth-century popes were committed to maintaining their temporalities by the Reform movement which was preoccupied with temporal as well as moral rehabilitation , but it was Innocent who brought the Papal State nearer a political reality than it had been before . |
| 15 | They probably stayed that night at Watchet , and there , tradition records , the first lines of ‘ The Ancient Mariner ’ were committed to writing at the Bell Inn , within sight of the ships in Watchet 's decaying harbour . |
| 16 | When I say it was a Government decision I 'm not speaking politically because whoever had 've won the last election whether it be Liberal Democrats Labour or Conservative all three parties were committed to reorganizing local government . |
| 17 | When Labour returned to power they were committed to reversing the emphasis upon building for owner occupation within the building boom , but otherwise they wanted to produce even more houses per annum . |
| 18 | Most carers were aged 45–64 ; and six out of ten were committed to looking after the dependant for at least 50 hours a week . |
| 19 | Bush said that they were committed to reaching an early agreement and Delors emphasized that there was too much at stake to allow failure . |
| 20 | This was not very difficult ; the Spanish still did not recognize other colonies in the Caribbean and the old rule of ‘ no peace beyond the line ’ went on , so that West Indian governments could still recruit on an official basis men who were committed to fighting against the Spanish whether the governments thought they were at war or not . |
| 21 | Painstakingly Verity Lambert explained to her superiors the impracticality of a thirteen week , quarter-year season ; the four part cavemen story was in the can , the seven part Dalek serial was under way , and they were committed to running ‘ Marco Polo ’ , also seven episodes in length , giving a grand total of eighteen weeks in all . |
| 22 | The attempt to buy the estate was put together by the World Wide Fund for Nature , the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the John Muir Trust , who were committed to raising £5 million with promise of a further £3.5 million from the National Heritage Memorial fund . |
| 23 | We had a little chat with Unix System Labs president Roel Pieper last week and he did n't exactly rule out the possibility of USL making a takeover move on Santa Cruz Operation Inc ( UX No 396 ) : however , he said , it would n't be a good business value unless both firms were committed to going in the same direction . |
| 24 | But companies can stop giving at any time ; under the traditional system of covenants , they were committed to giving an annual donation for four years . |
| 25 | The historical texts were confined to enumerating the kings who lived in those troubled years and do not give any indication that something important was occurring at that time . |
| 26 | Instead aspirations at both district and unit level were confined to making relatively modest service improvements and getting more control over the quality of care provided to their residents by other districts . |
| 27 | At first , people were connected to recording machines by speaking-tubes like elephants ' trunks . |
| 28 | Sitcoms like Love Thy Neighbour , Till Death Us Do Part and Mind Your Language were stuffed to bursting with gags which operated on the principle that differences of colour or culture were an endless source of easy laughs . |
| 29 | Instead of being able to visit the School Library Service base to examine new titles ( usually approval copies sent by library suppliers ) , school librarians were turning to browsing in local bookshops , buying from travelling discount booksellers , or choosing from publishers ' catalogues . |
| 30 | Fewer of the French nobility were drawn to looking after their estates . |