Example sentences of "at best [art] [adj] [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | In Malaysia , environmental concern over the rainforests is now seen as at best a Western fashion , and at worst a cynical attempt by the wealthier nations to thwart Third World development . |
| 2 | Heralded by the media ( for whom it was largely designed ) , it was at best a mixed success . |
| 3 | It can be fun seeing the tables turned , but it is at best a mixed experience . |
| 4 | Re-definition , however , whether by the courts or Parliament , is at best a partial answer to the difficulties which have arisen , since the difficulties of construction are at least as important as those of substance and can be resolved only by statutory amendment of the rule that ‘ a gift for both charitable and non-charitable purposes wholly fails ’ . |
| 5 | It seems at times to dwell excessively and inaccurately on the ineffectiveness of the English resistance ( see below ) , and is likely for the 990s at least to be at best a partial record . |
| 6 | For many , paying taxes is at best a necessary evil , at worst a legal way for the Government to steal your money . |
| 7 | Britain 's current " standfast policy " was deemed at best a short-term solution . |
| 8 | If The Lord of the Rings should approach too close to ‘ Gospel-truth ’ , to the Christian myth in which Tolkien himself believed , it might forfeit its status as a story and become at worst a blasphemy , an ‘ Apocryphal gospel ’ , at best a dull allegory rehearsing in admittedly novel form what everyone ought to know already . |
| 9 | The new forms of organising had , therefore , at best a tenuous relationship with organised labour . |
| 10 | This is at best a corrective belief , for whatever else Ulysses or The Waste Land are doing , they are also invoking for us the Dublin of 1904 or the London of 1921 . |
| 11 | Compulsive investors in the UK 's OTC market enjoy at best a love-hate relationship with the stocks , the dealers , and the whole manic unpredictability of it all , weighted against their interests though it is . |
| 12 | Publishers ' blurbs — i.e. the brief descriptions of books on the insides of dust covers — may sometimes be used as selection information by librarians , and are certainly a very important factor for readers selecting from library shelves , though they constitute at best a dubious selection instrument for librarians and readers alike . |
| 13 | Moral intervention was by itself at best a mere palliative unless co-ordinated by official sanitary regulation . |
| 14 | IBM has invested so much in the development of , and so much more in the marketing of , OS/2 2.0 that it has to plough on with it even if in 18 months ' time it becomes clear that it is becoming at best a respectable also-ran in the desktop stakes . |
| 15 | The realist and the sceptic think of the world as one on which we have at best a tentative grasp . |
| 16 | A coherent strategy for retrospective conversion has not been attempted for the UK ( although it is known that there are stirrings of such an initiative in a European context , involving the British Library ) and lack of institutional funding for such unglamorous activities has ensured at best a piecemeal approach . |
| 17 | The Doctrine is at best a circular re-statement of the obvious : Why did I experience those vibrations in the air as sounds ? |
| 18 | The reconstruction of the possible sequence of events in his life which can be inferred from the Office and personal remarks in his writings , is at best a complicated matter of academic conjecture which is of no direct help to the reader in engaging with his English works . |
| 19 | When English was established in British universities criticism played at best a minor part in it . |
| 20 | In part this was due to his commitment to the nationalist cause , though he played at best a minor role in the creation of Connolly 's Irish Citizen Army . |
| 21 | At best a written submission for presentation to the tribunal will be prepared , but this is not normally an adequate substitute for the interactive process of actual appearance before the tribunal . |
| 22 | What was at best a speculative investment six months ago by five of the six major accountancy bodies , the BBC and accountancy trainers BPP , looks now as if it could turn into a roaring success . |
| 23 | I had expected Gillis to be long since dead or at best a doddering ninety-year-old . |
| 24 | For it would encourage a reliance on schematic knowledge and a corresponding avoidance of an engagement with the systemic features of the foreign language , or at best a tactical use of them which would not lead to their internalization as a more general strategic resource . |
| 25 | It strongly suggests that GPs ' concern for civil liberties was considerably outweighed by their concern for treatment : at best a conceptual inability to distinguish between treatment need and treatment requirements combined with curtailment of civil liberties ; at worst something more sinister . |
| 26 | Elsewhere in the country , however , the idea met with at best a lukewarm response , and evidence of the existence of classes exists for only about a quarter of English counties . |
| 27 | The sovereignty of consumers has therefore become at best a shared sovereignty . |
| 28 | At worst this means a culture of style over content , with which we are engaged at present ; at best a visionary flash , the secular equivalent of a miracle , which can transform people 's lives . |
| 29 | In general , de Gaulle 's rapport with Allied publics was remarkably good , especially in view of the fact that he had no prior experience of either country , spoke at best a halting English , and had to overcome systematic attempts by the governments to influence press coverage against him . |
| 30 | Here , in blissful ignorance of formidable evidence to the contrary , judges continue ‘ to regard imprisonment as at best an effective antidote to crime , and at worst a justified form of incapacitation , even for petty , persistent offenders ’ ( Downes , 1999 : 203 ) . |