Example sentences of "[noun sg] can [adv] [verb] [prep] be " in BNC.
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| 1 | 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 . |
| 2 | The future can not come into being until the past is dead . |
| 3 | 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 ) . |
| 4 | 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 . |
| 5 | 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 . |
| 6 | The award of the British Standard BS 5750 ( part 1 ) means that the college can now claim to be a training centre of excellence . |
| 7 | The untouched in-tray can sometimes seem to be unbearably stressful . |
| 8 | But with the tax collectors anxious to get their hands on every ha'penny , the Chancellor can not afford to be generous . |
| 9 | 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 . |
| 10 | 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 . |
| 11 | Reforming officials within both the prison system and the criminal justice process can not afford to be merely reactive . |
| 12 | The therapist can not expect to be able to do it easily and accurately straightaway or every time . |
| 13 | ( 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 . |
| 14 | 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 . |
| 15 | 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 . |
| 16 | To adapt to the increasing complexities of modern business life , an organisation can not afford to be a sluggish bureaucracy . |
| 17 | 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 " . |
| 18 | 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 ] . |
| 19 | Moreover , because the bad copy by definition can not claim to be copying anything but itself , it creates its ‘ original ’ retroactively , so that the copy precedes the original in a ghostly originary repetition . |
| 20 | Just as a leader can not exist without followers , so too strategic vision can not exist without being so recognized by followers . |
| 21 | The Government can not pretend to be concerned with security at army barracks and then , without regard for the soldiers , put them on the streets of London as easy targets for the terrorists . ’ |
| 22 | The Government can not pretend to be concerned with security at army barracks and then , without regard for the soldiers , put them on the streets of London as easy targets for the terrorists . ’ |
| 23 | Although overdue , two elements of the bill can properly claim to be breaking new ground . |
| 24 | What has been said above about sampling can only hope to be the very lightest of scratches on the surface of what is a vast subject in itself . |
| 25 | Even the most veteran balletomane can not fail to be moved by the production and the dying swan scene at the end brought a few tears in the audience . |
| 26 | There are basically four elements required before a system can even begin to be considered as a desktop publishing tool . |
| 27 | To say that the patient can not demand to be stabbed because he can not suspend the operation of the criminal law and absolve the other of liability begs the question , depending as it does on a determination of what the criminal law is . |
| 28 | But a wife 's implied consent and contract can hardly extend to being overpowered and stupefied by drugs for the purpose of intercourse . |
| 29 | These notes about social work practice where there is mental impairment can not begin to be comprehensive ; skills in this area are developing fast . |
| 30 | However , applicants to the Faculties of Music and Veterinary Medicine can normally expect to be called for interview , while this may also happen in the case of applicants for degrees in Divinity and Nursing Studies ( full details are given in the Faculty Sections ) . |