Example sentences of "could [vb infin] been [art] [noun] of " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The barrage could have been a symbol of determination and hope for the Merseyside region . |
| 2 | The hat could have been a continuation of her face , Tom thought , the colours were so similar . |
| 3 | They could have been a couple of unpromising applicants for a minor domestic job . |
| 4 | A further consequence of this heating could have been a weakening of the upper layers of the crust and the formation of the northward dipping Main Central Thrust along its southern edge . |
| 5 | Or it could have been a trick of the light . |
| 6 | Osric , king of Northumbria ( 718–29 ) , could have been a descendant of Ealhfrith ( see below , p. 147 ) . |
| 7 | Osric , king of Northumbria ( 718–29 ) ( HE V , 23 ) , no details of whose reign are known , could have been a son of Ealhfrith or of Aldfrith , and either way his accession will have represented a restoration of Oswiu 's family to royal power ( even if , in the former case , of a branch which had been in political eclipse for half a century ) , but his successor Ceolwulf ( 729–37 ) was a brother of Coenred ( HE V , 23 ) and Ceolwulf 's successor , Eadberht ( 737–58 ) , son of Eata , son of Leodwald , was Ceolwulf 's first cousin . |
| 8 | It could have been a number of things . " |
| 9 | There were 16 other games going on that day and there could have been a score of bad incidents missed by the referee . |
| 10 | The workshop probably has its origins a little later than the saltire/interlaced square workshop already mentioned ; indeed , it could have been a product of the latter 's contact with the later phases of the " Orpheus workshop " in c. 325 . |
| 11 | The scissors themselves were ordinary enough , standard office issue , and shining steel : there was no outward sign that they could have been a weapon of murder , Dexter thought . |
| 12 | ‘ Oh , come , Sir Edmund , he could have been a Cardinal of Rome and his fate would have been the same . |
| 13 | I could n't see whether the revolver was a replica or real , and I certainly was n't going to risk my life for what could have been a bag of pennies . |
| 14 | ‘ From the moment he caught the bear 's attention there could have been no chance of him escaping . |
| 15 | Nevertheless , this panic reaction was neither universal nor permanent ; if it had been there could have been no War of Independence . |
| 16 | Without clothes , under his first blanket , he could have been the child of a king or a beggar . |
| 17 | It was pointed out in argument that , pursuant to regulation 7 of the Income Tax ( Building Societies ) Regulations 1986 , tax which was due but not paid on or before the due date could have been the subject of an assessment on Woolwich under paragraph 4(2) or ( 3 ) of Schedule 20 to the Finance Act 1972 ; but for the reasons I have already given any such assessment would , in my opinion , have been a nullity in the circumstances of the present case . |
| 18 | All His Own Work could have been the title of Stephen Coonts ' book , instead he chose to call it The Cannibal Queen ( Century Publishing , 344pp , illus , hbk , £16.99 ) . |
| 19 | He turned the car into a narrow street and stopped in a yard that could have been the twin of the one at the other hotel . |
| 20 | There are a couple of tracks from ‘ The Extremist ’ where it sounds like you could have been using a Les Paul , and that could have been the influence of the new stop tailpiece … |
| 21 | The third missed opportunity could have been the try of the season after Botica broke brilliantly from his own line and beat man after man but Offiah could not hold his pass on halfway with no-one between him and the Bradford line . |
| 22 | You do n't think it could have been the lady of the house 's dress shortened for a maid |
| 23 | As could have been the case of no male figure , the Christa for many people represented a distortion of Christianity . |
| 24 | One of the reasons Lukic went wobbly last season , apart from the trauma connected with the infamous Rangers punch , could have been the state of his ever-changing defence . |
| 25 | He could have been the driver of the Mercedes at the Hilton Hotel , but then so could the majority of Mainz 's male population . |
| 26 | If he turned and looked at her , she might have to give a straight reply , but to his narrow back , which could have been the back of a much younger man , she began to tease , in the way that she had learned so many of her new friends liked , when they made similar inquiries too , like the painter who 'd lain on her bed and asked her earnestly if she 'd ever experienced simultaneous orgasm , or the musician who 'd volunteered he 'd show her a ‘ perversion ’ he was sure nobody would have demonstrated to her before , and began nuzzling between her legs . |
| 27 | It could have been the assurance of that privacy and , perhaps , the promise of food which had persuaded him in from the cold . |
| 28 | Our parents may not have been Christian , or even if they were they could have been the victims of some erroneous ideas or traditions . |
| 29 | An accident , in the sense that it could have been the ancestors of lions that took up grass-eating , and the ancestors of antelopes that took up meat-eating . |
| 30 | A consequence of this decision could have been the creation of evidence that the project was merely an exercise in ‘ façadism ’ — the policy of retaining only the external skin of a building as a ‘ screen wall ’ to new accommodation , which often creates a disagreeable distinction between the ‘ stage set ’ of the preserved shell and the entirely rebuilt interior . |