Example sentences of "could [pron] be [vb pp] " in BNC.
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1 | Could nothing be done to restore the traditional balance of advantage to the defender ? |
2 | Tramp John Taylor , 69 , pleaded from the dock : ‘ Could I be put into custody ? |
3 | I required a longer rest ; and could I be driven home by someone , as I felt so tired ? |
4 | The third time I heard this trail ( as they are called ) , I dashed off a quick letter about my coffin difficulties , asking , at the same time , that if the producer considered my problem worth airing , could I be provided with a tape-recorder so I could get some of the more pompous prevarications dished out by the trade on permanent record ? |
5 | 1980 's ‘ Uprising ’ was Marley 's last completed album , a patchy affair but still bearing some great songs like ‘ Bad Card ’ , the gutsy ‘ Work ’ , ‘ Redemption Song ’ and the hit ‘ Could You Be Loved ’ , taken at an unusually rapid tempo . |
6 | How could you be bothered with cricket when there was golf — a universal , classless and very cheap obsession in Troon , Ayrshire , scene of my upbringing . |
7 | Could you be bothered getting that out unless you 're prepared wash all , all the bits afterwards . |
8 | Could you be removed from the local government service and perhaps help in the poll tax debate ? |
9 | It would be appalling to have a crazy wife , but if you also felt sorry for her , how could you be expected to cope ? |
10 | But — could you be persuaded to stay a little longer ? |
11 | Not by any stretch of the imagination could she be called beautiful and it was doubtful if she ever had been , but she was undeniably attractive . |
12 | How could she be expected to remain calm ? |
13 | How could she be expected to cope with stupid computers that had n't the wit to understand a simple error , or calculators that came up with the wrong numbers ? |
14 | You certainly had to be tough to live at Tullivers after the Admiral had gone , for Lucy Trigg , in her eighties , could not be bothered to have any domestic help , nor could she be bothered to light fires , to cook meals for herself , nor to clean the house and tend the garden . |
15 | She was not exactly beautiful , nor could she be classed as altogether pretty , in the strictly conventional sense of the word . |
16 | Could she be persuaded to buy more and , if so , for what reasons ? |
17 | The criterion of simplicity could itself be referred , as it was by Newton , to a God who had ensured that nature did nothing in vain or , as it was by Michael Faraday in the nineteenth century , to a God who had ensured that the book of his works would be as simple to comprehend as the book of his words . |
18 | This libidinal energy , once let loose , could itself be exposed to an ordering , as in the theory of Freud and the practice of psychoanalysis . |
19 | But new research suggests the very damage caused by humans could itself be countered by violent volcanic activity . |
20 | Opponents of this proposal , who included the Comptroller General , Charles Bowsher , argued that a borrowing limit above that of $25,000 million originally sought by the FDIC would threaten to draw the federal government further into debt , because the FDIC would be unlikely to be able to honour such a high level of debt on its own , and could itself be compelled eventually to turn to the government for rescue funding . |
21 | Could none be found to come back and give praise to God except this foreigner ? |
22 | Could something be done about fair trade ? |
23 | As this was the first time this had happened , how could we be expected to know in advance ? |
24 | can I be as could we be associated with that ? |
25 | By the late '80s , no longer could we be described as the ‘ sick man of Europe ’ . |
26 | ‘ But surely — how could we be thought responsible , if the food or wine were poisoned ? ’ |
27 | Another question : could one be bothered maintaining the fantasy league for the year if one took on the responsibility ? |
28 | How could one be expected even to talk to such fellows , much less to enter into negotiation with them ? |
29 | Only here , and in mining districts like Asturias , could there be said to exist a modern bourgeoisie and an industrial working class . |
30 | Could there be planned a General Election ! |