Example sentences of "had [adv] been able [verb] [prep] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | In Lewisham an attempt at large scale multi-disciplinary intervention to rehabilitate residents of such a hostel had only been able to move on a fifth of their treatment group after a year ( Timms , 1990 ) . |
| 2 | For professional development teachers the result was that they had only been able to learn through personal experience and had thus done so more slowly than was necessary : |
| 3 | The fines imposed upon the Earl of Lancaster and his followers were remitted , and Lancaster received confirmation of his right to Pontefract , Tutbury and Leicester , which he had not been able to recover after the revolution of 1327 , though he had to lease Pontefract from the queen for £1,000 a year . |
| 4 | A century later John Murray , the British ambassador in Constantinople , bitterly regretted that in 1774 he had not been able to act as mediator in the making of the Russo-Turkish peace of Kutchuk — Kainardji and thus gain the valuable presents from both sides which would have been his reward . |
| 5 | Manuel had not been able to improve on par the first day but everyone knew he was capable of making up a lot of leeway with one of his famous ‘ charges . ’ |
| 6 | But , so far , at any rate , he had not been able to get beyond page 12 . |
| 7 | She had not been able to come to terms with her ‘ public position ’ . |
| 8 | Conversation with Alexei had been limited for the past day to standard matters of duty , and since he had not been able to think of anything which he could say to change his son 's attitude , he had allowed himself to accept that the state of affairs which existed between them was likely to be permanent . |
| 9 | When she met her current boyfriend and fell pregnant , she had not been able to confide in them . |
| 10 | The only lodgings James had been able to afford were so squalid he had scarcely been able to concentrate on his studies for the cold each winter , and the thought of a house and a wife to warm his bed had been added incentive to pursue marriage plans with Maud Rollerson . |
| 11 | In the three days since his interview with the Bishop he had scarcely been able to speak for the bitterness of his blighted hopes . |
| 12 | It was Willey , supported by Emburey , who kept it at bay , the final score being 391 for 7 ; admittedly , Roberts had hardly been able to bowl on the last day , but the home team had shown themselves that they could bat a bit if they tried . |
| 13 | Neither father and mother , nor sister , had ever been able to talk about it , either between themselves or with outsiders . |
| 14 | All they had ever been able to do in the face of violence was to bend to it . |
| 15 | I put my arm across his shoulders , and as he leaned against me for a moment and sobbed I wondered if he had ever been able to cry like this — like a little boy with somebody to comfort him . |
| 16 | She had seen a lot of Japanese kaiju eiga flatties as a child thanks to a quirk of her father 's , and had now been able to draw on her memories of them . |
| 17 | They wanted to reopen Sadler 's Wells with Carmen , Aida , Trovatore , operas they had n't been able to perform during the war . |
| 18 | I had a feeling they 'd been blocked off by the malais and had n't been able to go by the quickest route they wanted . |
| 19 | But I can assure you that I would n't have lasted five minutes in what , by any standards , is a very tricky and difficult market if I had n't been able to cope with the work . |
| 20 | I was trying to accomplish within my own small person what the malais had n't been able to do to a nation . |
| 21 | Often the timbers were no more than columns of sort of dampish dust because they had n't been able to breathe in this kind of brick envelope . |
| 22 | She had n't been able to sleep at all the night before for thinking of him , and some of her thoughts had been unprintable . |
| 23 | He had n't been able to sleep on the plane at all . |
| 24 | Michelangelo , da Vinci , Bellini , Caravaggio , Bernini — half the world 's art treasures in one country , and I had n't been able to travel beyond the walls of the Victoria and Albert . |
| 25 | For a long time after she had died , she had n't been able to think about her at all , it had been so awful , but now she could . |
| 26 | He had n't been able to mix with other pupils and suffered from depression . |
| 27 | This beautiful Old English Sheepdog had n't been able to compete at Crufts this year because his co-owner had been judging . |
| 28 | She 'd already been there over two weeks , and still had n't been able to speak to the Dane . |
| 29 | The crew had n't been able to knock in ( ‘ locate ’ , for the purposes of the Captain 's log ) the nose-wheel pin . |
| 30 | At school leaving age , parents who had previously been able to cope with a child attending or possibly boarding at a special school are faced with the continuing prospect of full time life with their mentally handicapped son or daughter who may be unable to find a place in a training centre or enter full time education . |