Example sentences of "[modal v] hardly be [vb pp] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | says Rommetveit , might have been all well and good for religions , but it should hardly be taken as axiomatic in the rational study of society . |
| 2 | Rochlin appropriates for masculinity , albeit in a form so highly selective it might hardly be recognized , that sense of the inherent instability of identity which Lacanians and others have taken from psychoanalysis for feminism . |
| 3 | Therefore the admission which the Prime Minister wrung from him could hardly be said to have been grudging . |
| 4 | The policing of CND rallies and the miners ' strike could hardly be said from the Government 's point of view to have failed , and certainly the police did not suffer for want of legal powers . |
| 5 | The English armies could hardly be said to have been outfought since they had not yet fought at all . |
| 6 | The resistance of Ulster had not been created by British Unionists and could hardly be said to depend on them , but the knowledge of support was certainly useful to Carson and Craig in giving their plans for rebellion an official look . |
| 7 | The Prince of Wales could hardly be said to be a good luck symbol at the moment . |
| 8 | Basic questions about how X-rays affect living cells could hardly be answered , or even investigated with any precision until the doses absorbed could be measured . |
| 9 | It could hardly be argued that to place the power of veto in the hands of an individual or a minority is a democratic device , except perhaps in certain very unusual and specific circumstances . |
| 10 | In 1922 the capital of the guberniia could hardly be called a bastion of the proletariat . |
| 11 | There had already been a kerfuffle over the pornographic ones ; they could n't be included in the facsimile edition and yet at the same time it could hardly be called a complete edition if they were n't there . |
| 12 | The integration of its railway system — it could hardly be called a network — was a major problem . |
| 13 | By all accounts , Elena was the architect of this meanness : it could hardly be called peasant hoarding , since she would not keep leftovers , but certainly discouraged even her husband from rare bouts of generosity to the staff . |
| 14 | The elongated , slightly oval hummock could hardly be called a grave , more a burial mound . |
| 15 | The garden could hardly be called a garden ; it was large , wild and not too well kept . |
| 16 | There was bougainvillaea in flower , clambering up the stone walls , small white roses on thin stalks among the weeds , and wild flowers in what could hardly be called a garden . |
| 17 | From remarkably early in his life , Nietzsche had a strong awareness , visionary rather than analytical , of the problematic nature of modern culture , although initially his perspective could hardly be called original . |
| 18 | The main weakness of the programme was that schooling could hardly be called accessible when those who were supposed to benefit from it had to pay for tuition . |
| 19 | That could hardly be called sampling the capital 's restaurants ! |
| 20 | Now to an event that could hardly be called a sport , even though it did produce a new British champion . |
| 21 | LADY in black Jackie Miller could hardly be called a mo-pedestrian either . |
| 22 | ‘ That could hardly be called a conciliatory speech , ’ said Isambard delicately . |
| 23 | Prior Robert might not have been very greatly grieved if Tutilo had been made to pay for his outrageous offence with his skin , but Prior Robert had been at dinner with the abbot and several other witnesses that night , and in any case could hardly be imagined as lurking in wet woods to strike down the delinquent with his own elegant hands . |
| 24 | But ideas so uncompromising as this could hardly be voiced , at least on the eastern shores of the Atlantic , until after the French Revolution had broken out . |
| 25 | Of course , what Oxford " meant " and the source of its " powers " , a classical curriculum taught within an intimate collegiate system , could hardly be extended . |
| 26 | Before the next match , the selectors debated long and hard over the England captaincy , the problem being that Emburey 's form had declined and his place in the team could hardly be justified ; their solution was to drop him and appoint Chris Cowdrey in his place , whose enthusiastic style of leadership had taken an ordinary Kent side to the top of the table . |
| 27 | Besides , such a prolific writer could hardly be ignored and his popularity moved through many decades by its own momentum , rather as Enid Blyton 's has done in the middle years of the present century . |
| 28 | But the Baath 's successful programme of development could hardly be ignored and the country 's prospects looked healthier than those of many neighbours . |
| 29 | More generous approaches to the question of emancipation were to be found not only in the many unofficial memoranda which were passing from hand to hand , but also in the minds of a few well-placed individuals whose views could hardly be ignored . |
| 30 | The ethic of abstinence and effort could hardly be applied to the success of the American millionaires of the 1860s and 1870s , or even to the wealthy manufacturer , retired to a life of country-house leisure , still less to his rentier relatives ; to those whose ideal was , in Ruskin 's words : |