Example sentences of "[noun] can [adv] [verb] [prep] be " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Gazza can not wait to be one of them again . |
| 2 | The church leaders said that no party which supports violence can seriously claim to be ‘ discharging its responsibilities in a positive and honourable way ’ in so far as the establishment of peace is concerned . |
| 3 | The future can not come into being until the past is dead . |
| 4 | Journalists can not claim to be above the law , but what they can claim , in every country which takes free speech seriously , is a right to publish first , and take the risk of conviction afterwards . |
| 5 | Foucault argues that just as there can be no general theory of history , but only particular answers to particular questions which make individual practices intelligible , so the intellectual can best hope to be specific rather than universal ( universal in the sense of proposing transcendent values , systems , totalities , narratives or teleologies ) . |
| 6 | Apart from all else the concentration required to hear mentally an orchestral passage while seated in a bus or train or standing in the Underground can not fail to be beneficial . |
| 7 | She could n't defend herself without rousing him to greater ferocity ; she knew that in the moment of conflict , an enemy can never protest to be a friend and be believed ; she had seen the distrust Kit 's sudden switches of mood inspired . |
| 8 | The award of the British Standard BS 5750 ( part 1 ) means that the college can now claim to be a training centre of excellence . |
| 9 | Kevin Wilson was another who had a fine game ; he has developed into a player Northern Ireland can not afford to be without . |
| 10 | The untouched in-tray can sometimes seem to be unbearably stressful . |
| 11 | Only Conservatives can truly claim to be the party of opportunity ; choice ; ownership and responsibility . |
| 12 | But with the tax collectors anxious to get their hands on every ha'penny , the Chancellor can not afford to be generous . |
| 13 | Nevertheless , sport can not afford to be soft on those who cause the problems — whether it is athletes who , as drug users , habitually cheat , or the spectators who take the law into their own hands and invade football pitches . |
| 14 | Russia can not afford to be flanked by newly nuclear states on its southern borders ; or to allow the ethnic strife in and between ex-Soviet republics to turn nuclear ; or to see extremists among its own fissiparous peoples demand independence on pain of nuclear terrorism . |
| 15 | The international community can not afford to be complacent , assuming that if the United Nations peacekeeping force is there that everything will go according to plan . |
| 16 | Under-fives workers can not afford to be concerned solely with so-called ‘ professional ’ issues . |
| 17 | Reforming officials within both the prison system and the criminal justice process can not afford to be merely reactive . |
| 18 | Hence Sharon and partner Martin can only get to be with their pedigree chum for a few precious hours on Sunday mornings at kennels in Wickford . |
| 19 | The therapist can not expect to be able to do it easily and accurately straightaway or every time . |
| 20 | Since young managers can not expect to be rewarded for good short-term performances , there is less incentive to work for short-term results at the expense of longer-term benefits . |
| 21 | As we consume little more than 10 litres of wine per person per year , Britons can hardly claim to be a ‘ wine-drinking nation ’ . |
| 22 | ( a ) Murder and serious non-fatal offences ( except for games , chastisement , etc ) : a person can not consent to being killed , nor can one consent to grievous bodily harm . |
| 23 | In the case of a defendant who uses words , a person can hardly fail to be aware of what he is saying , although he may possibly not know that what he is displaying ( if it be a book ) contains offensive material of which others are aware but he is not . |
| 24 | Working with families can often appear to be a daunting task because the counsellor has to hold together so many different individuals at the same time . |
| 25 | The central event of the former 's pontificate can hardly fail to be seen as Humanae Vitae in 1968 , central because its publication marked a watershed separating the first years of enthusiasm , of an optimistic post-conciliar implementation in which Rome and leading Catholic theologians were still working more or less hand in hand ( as they had done in the latter years of the Council ) from the far more contestatory and unsure later period . |
| 26 | To adapt to the increasing complexities of modern business life , an organisation can not afford to be a sluggish bureaucracy . |
| 27 | A vast amount of work remains to be done before the UK can really claim to be properly policing trade in wildlife . |
| 28 | To ignore what has been regarded as central by such civilizations and persons can hardly claim to be a fair and objective approach . |
| 29 | Although " commercial enterprise may have a legitimate and desirable object … that object can not claim to be the satisfaction of any of the three great national affections — the love of truth , the love of beauty , and the love of righteousness " . |
| 30 | Moreover , if the perspective is lengthened to include the Victorian period the observer can not fail to be struck by a feeling of historical déjà vu [ Kirby , 1981 ] . |