Example sentences of "[noun sg] be merely [art] " in BNC.
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| 1 | It should be borne in mind , however , that the modules which constitute the award are merely an indication of the expected level of competence to be demonstrated by office workers who hold a qualification at Level I and II . |
| 2 | Sometimes differences in terminology are merely the use of different words for the same or similar groups ( such a ‘ West Indian ’ and ‘ Afro-Caribbean ’ ) ; at other times , different sets of terms refer to different classifications and different ways of classifying . |
| 3 | The collective chanting of slogans and songs , the taking of ends and the solidaristic expressions of violence are merely the ‘ old ways ’ manifested in an unrestrained and more spectacular form . |
| 4 | A Labour majority in the House of Commons should rally round the executive and protect it against the array of hostile capitalist forces , the Conservative Opposition being merely the front-line troops for the captains of industry , the financiers and the press barons . |
| 5 | It would be a mistake , however , to think that the Marcan Gospel of the New Testament is merely the notes of , or the preaching of , Peter . |
| 6 | Yet it seems that according to Lord Diplock such reasoning is merely the invention of a fancied ambiguity , which is no reason for denying the ‘ plain ’ meaning of a statute . |
| 7 | Edwards and Rackages base their approach on the highly questionable premise that spectator violence is merely a playing out of tensions external to sport itself . |
| 8 | Cocaine is merely a recreational drug and , taken to excess , like alcohol or nicotine , it is undoubtedly dangerous , but judiciously used it can be a source of harmless pleasure , and even of intellectual stimulation . |
| 9 | German federalism is merely a cloak thrown over the relatively strong regionalism Which persists in Germany , and it was a system adopted by Germany , with the Allies ' approval , after the war as a way of preventing a return of totalitarianism , which is why the Germans associate federalism with the opposite of centralised power . |
| 10 | As I have already stated , I consider that that rule is merely a manifestation of the more general rule that the vessel must be operated from the flag state and that its use must be directed and controlled from the territory of that state . |
| 11 | Mr Groenewald admits that the use of force is merely a ‘ hypothetical option ’ . |
| 12 | This subjective appreciation of the work of Nizan is merely the starting point of analysis , however . |
| 13 | Today Labour talks of investment to pull Britain out of recession , but its investment is merely a euphemism for public spending on an unprecedented scale . |
| 14 | Brewster is merely an old word for ‘ brewer ’ — which is why licensing sessions , held in the first 14 days of February , have that name . |
| 15 | ‘ I know it 's weird , ’ she went on , ‘ but pleasure is merely the result of naturally occurring chemicals secreted in the brain , and cocaine can turn those chemicals on like a faucet . |
| 16 | This equation is merely a formal statement of the idea that the quantity of output supplied is primarily determined by the local price relative to suppliers ' expectations of the economy-wide average price of output . |
| 17 | He believes that the radical opposition 's shrillness is merely an effort ‘ to ring bells to attract attention . ’ |
| 18 | We do not suppose that the wipers ' starting to work was some sort of accident or mystery , of which the driver 's flipping the switch was merely a required condition . |
| 19 | As for Sparta , perhaps her first vote was merely a warning shot , and her second was for peace ; she was publicizing her own resolve to abide scrupulously by the terms of the Thirty Years Peace : Samos was ‘ possessed ’ by Athens in 446 and so she had a right to keep it . |
| 20 | Mrs Marcos had said the burial was merely a ‘ filial and sacred duty ’ . |
| 21 | The writer 's work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what , without this book , he would perhaps never have perceived in himself . |
| 22 | Paul de Man is reported to have said that a literary work is merely an event in the history of interpretation . |
| 23 | According to this study , clerical work is merely an occupational category through which men pass . |
| 24 | Fibre/resin composite is used for the skins , which confer most of the sandwich 's rigidity ; the core is merely a light but compressively stiff intermediary that keeps the two skins apart . |
| 25 | On the other hand , Preobrazhensky 's law of primitive socialist accumulation is merely the next logical step , or steps , based upon the premise of the conscious decision to build a socialist economy . |
| 26 | Or , as Samuel Burler has it , the proper statement of relations between successive generations is to say that a hen is merely an egg 's way of making another egg ’ |
| 27 | Spoil-sports maintain that IR is merely a new name for what companies have been muddling along at anyway : arranging meetings between management and institutions , co-ordinating the annual general meeting , and producing the annual report . |
| 28 | It happens all the time — the question is merely an opener to fulfilling a wish to own something new , and merely seeks to confirm that the purchase is a worthy one . |
| 29 | ‘ It was , perhaps , appropriate that the bereaved fiancee and husband should find mutual consolation although no one who has seen the beautiful Barbara Berowne could suppose that the marriage was merely a matter of fraternal duty . ’ |
| 30 | One Monday morning I lay in bed looking out of my skylight window at nothing in particular ; there was n't anything to see except sky because the window was merely a hole in the roof which you could open or shut with a long wooden handle . |