Example sentences of "[adv] serve [to-vb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Any tenderness between the two of them would be a sham as far as he was concerned , merely serving to emphasise the absence of love , and perhaps like her he felt that a relationship characterised by so much other feeling ought to be loving as well , that the depth of desire he felt for her should have been merely a facet of love instead of the whole . |
| 2 | Furthermore , evidence was described to support their contention that the events were of formative importance , and were not merely serving to trigger depression in a woman who would shortly have become depressed anyway . |
| 3 | He stood there , long , lean and totally without concern , the clothes he wore only serving to emphasise the dark arrogance of the man . |
| 4 | Starting with a fascinating selection of photos taken during Mosquito production at Hatfield ( UK ) , Downsview ( Canada ) and Bankstown ( Australia ) , further sections deal with the fighter and bomber variants of this maid-of-all-work , only serving to illustrate what an aesthetically pleasing aircraft the Mosquito was from all angles . |
| 5 | He found himself involved in an argument about silver wrapping-paper only serving to accentuate the paltriness of a gift . |
| 6 | Which only served to remind her once again of her own lack of control . |
| 7 | I recently had an interesting encounter with the honeybee and it only served to point out that regardless of size the degree of intelligence is quite extraordinary . |
| 8 | They only served to emphasise the power and toughness which was the man beneath the civilised veneer , and Fran shivered , wishing she had never started this by letting her emotions come to the surface . |
| 9 | She should be grateful for that , she told herself irritably — instead , it only served to heighten her growing frustration all the more . |
| 10 | Because some of the volunteers subsequently joined my slimming and exercise classes which I hold weekly at the Holiday Inn in Leicester , I was able to hear first hand the kind of encouraging comments which only served to confirm what I was seeing with my eyes as each week passed . |
| 11 | As in all such complicated and protracted events , both had right on their side at times which only served to perpetuate feelings of grievance . |
| 12 | He spelled out the dangers without being too alarmist , but it only served to make Matthew more determined to become a sailor . |
| 13 | Likewise , Newton 's ‘ established ’ groups built up a ‘ close set ’ of relationships with public officials in Birmingham ( 1976 , p. 85 ) , while his poorly established groups found it difficult to gain access to decision-makers and thereby had to resort to demonstrations , petitions and so on which only served to make them even more unacceptable . |
| 14 | It only served to make her look more distinguished . |
| 15 | From now until the catastrophe of 1870 the Emperor 's foreign policy was to be one of expedients and compromises , all of which only served to demean him in the eyes of Europe , while simultaneously underlining how feeble was any form of ‘ court diplomacy ’ faced with the reality of Bismarck 's ‘ blood and iron ’ tactics . |
| 16 | She observed two of the leading women philanthropists of the day , Ella Pycroft and Octavia Hill , both of whom had remained single , and recorded her opinion that both ‘ might have been more ’ with a happy family life , which only served to increase her anguish . |
| 17 | In better days , however , it merely served to guarantee the privacy of the sovereigns and as a diversion for the Prince Imperial who enjoyed running up and down it when he came to play with his parents . |
| 18 | The second was the decision of the American Supreme Court that they should divest themselves of monopoly control of the cinema chains which , as Heston said , was in hindsight a death blow which merely served to hasten the financial decline of each and every studio . |
| 19 | ( They have also recognized the political virtues of pluralistic multi-party democracy , which pluralism appeared to celebrate while Marxists previously derided it as ‘ bourgeois democracy ’ which merely served to mystify the reality of class oppression . ) |
| 20 | Some analysts claimed that the emergence of a Mao-style personality cult surrounding Deng only served to highlight the precarious position of his reformist line . |
| 21 | The clue we recovered from their dead letterbox , however , only served to confuse us further . |
| 22 | These sanctions , depriving Japan of crucial imports , only served to reinforce Japan 's feeling of vulnerability concerning raw materials and fuel supplies . |
| 23 | But nationalism is a treacherous weapon and may rebound on its user and , especially after the failure of the European radical movements in 1848 , the Pan-Germanism and anti-semitism which Vienna adopted only served to stir the embers of Bohemian nationality . |
| 24 | And that latest piece of information , that he had then brutally destroyed the three big killer Dobermans , only served to emphasise how lethally dangerous the man was . |
| 25 | He had shed the formal suit he 'd worn previously and was dressed today in black trousers and leather jacket over a black silk shirt , sombre colours that only served to emphasise the olive cast of his skin , the night-darkness of his hair and eyes . |
| 26 | The conversations with Alexander and his Foreign Minister , Prince Gorchakov , only served to underline the problems and did nothing towards providing a solution . |
| 27 | That sort of expenditure , instead of encouraging the rest of the cast to believe that the management had faith in the production , only served to dispirit them , thinks West . |
| 28 | As he strode out into the darkness , the gloom and chill of the evening only served to sharpen his anticipation , so that he had no eyes for the RIC men on patrol , the few pedestrians hurrying along , or the horse and cart just moving off beside him on the road , the barely discernible name JAS SULLIVAN painted on the cart 's side and a burly figure with a flattened nose and scarred face hunched on the driver 's seat , desultorily twitching the reins . |
| 29 | Papal implication in subsequent plotting against Elizabeth and financial support for the Spanish Armada only served to confirm this equation , and as a consequence Elizabeth was unable to withstand the growing pressure from her Protestant subjects for the introduction of harsher recusancy laws and civil disabilities for Catholics . |
| 30 | This action by the Social Work Department only served to compound the trauma the children were experiencing being removed from their homes and families at all . |