Example sentences of "a [adj] [noun] had be [v-ing] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | On the seminary hill a strange edifice had been constructing over the last previous months . |
| 2 | For most , there is an enduring search for bonds of love and loyalty , and other research showed that four out of five teenagers involved in a sexual relationship had been going out with their partner for six months or more . |
| 3 | Something approaching a personal crisis had been building up since Nietzsche 's return from the unforgettable distress of war . |
| 4 | In the last few weeks , in the last few days especially , a suppressed excitement had been growing . |
| 5 | Afterwards , he remembered that Lots Road power station had smoked whitely into a grey sky , and that along the Embankment a cold wind had been whipping off the river , driving spread-eagled pages from an old newspaper before it and wrapping one of them round the legs of a tall , frail man in a tweed overcoat . |
| 6 | But unknown to the gunman , a little boy had been stealing a ride on the bar under the carriage , and he saw it all . |
| 7 | A terrible knowledge had been swelling slowly in the Padre 's mind , like a sweet , poisonous fruit , which for a long time he had not dared to taste . |
| 8 | The human rights organization Amnesty International claimed in a report published on Jan. 10 that torture and summary executions by the Senegalese security forces were becoming more common in the southern region of Casamance , where a separatist movement had been intensifying its armed struggle since mid-1990 [ see pp. 37799-800 ] . |
| 9 | There were two versions of the film , in the violent version a small boy had been playing outside the bank and was shot in the face as the robbers made their getaway . |
| 10 | My hon. Friend may remember that , in 1980 , a quarter of a million people had been waiting for more than two months for telephones to be connected . |
| 11 | Less innocent were the scandals such as that exposed in 1916 of Hospital 27 , where a crooked doctor had been providing bogus discharges from the army at several thousand francs a time . |