Example sentences of "only by a [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | With the sun below the horizon it was only by a perceptible lightening of the sky in that direction that it was possible to place themselves in the great ocean of trees . |
| 2 | Only by a greater yield from the land could a growing population be supported , and savings and a market be created for a resumption of ‘ lost ’ industrial prosperity . |
| 3 | I justify this departure from intention by advancing a theory that Skye was obviously once a part of the mainland : a study of the map confirms that it is separated only by a narrow channel , Kyle Rhea , the configuration of the shores on either side matching as though torn apart in ages past . |
| 4 | The cottage stood about two hundred yards back from the road , accessible only by a narrow drive flanked on both sides by stone walls . |
| 5 | It was flanked by two towers and its entrance was reached only by a narrow stairway , but by no stretch of the imagination could it be called a fortress . |
| 6 | The barn owl can swoop down on a mouse in total darkness , guided only by a faint rustle in the undergrowth . |
| 7 | It could be transformed only by a Western victory in a Third World War or by a voluntary Soviet withdrawal . |
| 8 | A century ago , later life was a privilege reached only by a fortunate minority : average life expectancy was under fifty years . |
| 9 | Abortion is a political act , and as a simple act of Parliament has brought about the slaughter , so only by a political action can the law be changed to stop it . ’ |
| 10 | To ease the credit policy , the Federal Reserve Board cut interest rates to their lowest level since November 1964 after chairman Alan Greenspan admitted that January 's and February 's surge in growth may have been caused only by a mild winter after all . |
| 11 | Rawls assumes without argument that the social role can be fulfilled only by a perfect doctrine of justice , i.e. , one which establishes a perfect government for his actual society . |
| 12 | This disposition of rooms made it possible to treat the residual high-level space as a single living/dining/cooking area , with the kitchen located at its northern end , divided from the generous living-dining-room only by a head-height folding screen . |
| 13 | Writers of textbooks have a clear view of what they are trying to achieve , and , encouraged by their own success when developing the material , too easily believe that other teachers will use it in the same way when guided only by a well-written instruction , or even just the ‘ clear ’ implication of style in the material itself . |
| 14 | Only by a tacit but effective agreement to combine against any power which threatened them , in other words by the creation of a balance of power . |
| 15 | Albert Dawes signed for Crystal Palace FC from Northampton Town on the Wednesday before Christmas 1933 and , in two periods with the Palace before the war ( interrupted only by a fifteen month spell when he helped Luton Town to the 3rd Division South championship in 1937 ) , he became Palace 's third highest goalscorer of all time in the Football League — only Peter Simpson and George Clarke have improved upon Albert 's total of 91 League goals . |
| 16 | One consequence of augmenting the focus registers as in SPAR is that it becomes more common for candidates to be separated only by a weak focusing preference . |
| 17 | It 's hard to divine the facts of her early life since her autobiography , Lady Sings The Blues , is full of tawdry details which are as likely to be figments of a pulp imagination as they are the truth : the way she tells it , she was routinely mistreated and beaten , recruited for a brothel and more or less saved only by a small talent for holding a tune . |
| 18 | The interior of the bus was lit only by a small torch made to look like an old lamp , the type you see in Westerns , and from what I could see I was glad there was no more light . |
| 19 | It may delay the onset of Aids , even if only by a small amount . |
| 20 | When those hopes are dashed so soon , not only by a cruel foreign king , but by God 's own people , then the story turns to bleak tragedy , and becomes unbearable . |
| 21 | The outward calm she was managing to project was achieved only by a supreme effort of will-power . |
| 22 | The dead silence was broken only by a regular drip , drip , drip . |
| 23 | Five minutes after half-time he was frustrated only by a glorious flying save by Beasant . |
| 24 | The observed pattern , that in all directions the redshift of a galaxy is proportional to its distance from us , can be explained ( if we are not at a special place in the Universe ) only by a uniform universal expansion . |
| 25 | Finally , to his delight , he came upon a 41-ship convoy from the Baltic , escorted only by a 20-gun sloop , the Countess of Scarborough , and a 44-gun frigate , the Serapis . |
| 26 | Does my right hon. Friend agree that it was only by a consistent and credible policy of multilateral disarmament that the collapse of communism was eventually assured ? |
| 27 | His brother , who succeeded him as the Emperor Leopold II , was able to restore peace in the disturbed areas only by a skilful mixture of force and concessions . |
| 28 | As schools increase in their heterogeneity , those that serve areas where there is a concentration of disadvantage will watch helpless as the more motivated , more able , more ambitious children move to the favoured schools , leaving them to cope with the rest , and worse , suffer the ignominy of having their results on national tests published , protected only by a general statement from the local authority , indicating ‘ the nature of socio-economic and other influences which are known to affect schools ’ ( Task Group on Assessment and Testing , para 134 ) . |
| 29 | Therefore one is warranted in making the inference from the behaviour to the beliefs and intentions of the speaker only by a general assumption of sincerity , or cooperativeness ( see Chapter 3 ) . |
| 30 | In fact , a particular variable may have more than one function , but it is only by a close analysis that treats speaker variables as independent that we will be able to determine whether this is so . |