Example sentences of "[pron] had [be] unable " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Loss of my letter of introduction from Barry the Magus had meant that I had been unable to make the most of a brief , lacklustre meeting in Puerto Maldonaldo with its adviser Didier Lacaze , a slight , diffident Frenchman . |
| 2 | On the train , I had been unable to imagine Flaubert ( howling like an impatient dog ? grumbling ? ardent ? ) making the same journey ; now at this point of pilgrimage , the gateposts were no help in thinking my way back to the hot reunions of Gustave and Louise . |
| 3 | How often had this meant an edgy evening , when she had been unable to concentrate on what people were saying because of an ill-placed fabric rose or an over-embroidered antique shawl ? |
| 4 | One girl said that she had been unable to breathe , and was only able to do so when she covered her face with a pillow . |
| 5 | Her eyes leapt from Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob to Verse 25 of the Gospel According to St Matthew , to which she had turned simply because it began the New Testament and she had been unable to make anything of the Old . |
| 6 | But , last night , she had been unable to sleep . |
| 7 | She had been unable to bear the women 's pain and had switched off quite quickly , despite the cleverness of the actresses . |
| 8 | Now , when Paul told her the truth , her first thought was that she wished she had got herself an extra gown , while she was at it ; in fact she had been unable conveniently to carry any more , or would have done so . |
| 9 | She had been unable to concentrate on her reading , her mind constantly straying to the conversation she had had with him in the rose gardens . |
| 10 | For the past twenty-four hours , she had swallowed none of her medication , although she had been unable to refuse an injection . |
| 11 | ‘ He deserves a proper thrashing , ’ Cissie protested , fiercely indignant that she had been unable to defend herself while her cowardly brother took delight in whipping her . |
| 12 | The police had apologized for the incident as if they were personally to blame , their apologies becoming even more profuse as they told her that , without a number plate ( which she had been unable to remember ) to trace , there was little chance of them finding the car , let alone the driver . |
| 13 | She had been unable to visit Kathleen O'Neill but had heard that she was still in hospital and receiving treatment for the wound on her head . |
| 14 | She had been unable to do so . |
| 15 | Energy she had been unable to replace by eating because of her queasy stomach . |
| 16 | Two Cellophane-wrapped sprays that she had been unable to deliver were lying on the bouquet of roses she had prepared for her rival . |
| 17 | Mrs Hawkins reported that she had been unable to take photos at this location as she had first to finish off a slide film , but will soon be in a position to take the required photos and also others to be displayed at the A.G.M. and then stored in the village archives . |
| 18 | State Premier Joan Kirner had inherited office when John Cain was forced to resign in August 1990 after a Royal Commission inquiry into the collapse of the merchant banking arm of the state bank , Tricontinental , revealed a record of financial mismanagement , but she had been unable to reverse the consequent unpopularity of her party . |
| 19 | A man , whose face she had been unable to see , had suddenly appeared , pulled her out of the shit , and then disappeared . |
| 20 | Bluebeard had been a private joke — an exclamation she had been unable to stifle as they 'd rounded the cliff at the head of the valley and she had got her first glimpse of the imposing turreted Castell Rocamar . |
| 21 | They seemed to express her own helplessness , for it was true : she had been unable to stop herself from falling in love , and even now , underneath all the adulation and the triumph of her public life , her love was as rock-solid — and as hopeless — as ever . |
| 22 | At the weekend she had visited her parents ' home and spent some time with her sister , Jennifer , but she had found that she had been unable to tell them about David Markham . |
| 23 | What haunted her was the way he had kissed her — and how she had been unable to do anything but respond ! |
| 24 | She had been unable to decide what treatment Mrs Richards needed . |
| 25 | American Express said it had received about 100 complaints so far this year from card members who had booked accommodation — only fly-cruises in the Bahamas — some for as little as £99.50 — and who had been unable to board ship . |
| 26 | American Express said it had received about 100 complaints so far this year from card members who had booked accommodation — only fly-cruises in the Bahamas — some for as little as £99.50 — and who had been unable to board ship . |
| 27 | They are recalled as somewhat sad , dependent figures : a ‘ poor old fellow ’ who went out to his sister for his meals ; ‘ a right cripple ’ who had been unable to work for over ten years ; ‘ a very old gentleman ’ who scraped together a living by selling vegetables and tomatoes which he grew in his greenhouse , but was ‘ very unhappy ’ because he had quarrelled with his drunken son . |
| 28 | Group Captain Lord Cheshire , who had been unable to be present , had sent a telegram . |
| 29 | Friedman , writing about the work done by a group of doctors in Family Planning Clinics with women who had been unable to consummate their marriage , typified certain syndromes by reference to myths . |
| 30 | It struck Nathan that these were all people who had been unable to get in . |