Example sentences of "[pron] [prep] [noun pl] had been " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | The result was the abolition in February 1844 of the Secret Office which for generations had been intercepting letters of possible interest to the government . |
| 2 | The fields shone a new green in the sun , and the air which for days had been hazy had been cleaned by the rain so that I could make out the shapes of sheep grazing near the old Coal Road above Cowgill as I walked down the lane . |
| 3 | The effect was explosive , and deeply embarrassing to the government 's position , which for years had been obstructive — to such an extent that Britain had long been known as ‘ The Dirty Man of Europe ’ . |
| 4 | The expanding Russian empire was showing an increasing interest in Northeast Asia , and China was likely to challenge any attempt by Japan to intervene in the affairs of a country which for centuries had been her foremost tributary . |
| 5 | A belief in Chinese superiority stemming from a closer approximation to the natural order of the cosmos governed China 's relations with neighbouring peoples , which over centuries had been conducted on a tributary basis . |
| 6 | Thus when there was demand for training youth in drama the holder of the purse , the government , turned for advice not to educationalists , not to speech and drama experts ( although there was some overlap here ) , but to a small group of charismatic figures who for decades had been promoting community drama of one sort or another , promoting it by giving advice , by running courses , by setting up drama libraries of play-texts , by making links with professional theatre , by popularising competitive festivals . |
| 7 | It was our unclouded commitment to women , and greater insistence that the fundamentals of sexism should be tackled without compromise , that brought youth service attention back to the young women who for decades had been excluded by boys and men . |
| 8 | Even the most powerful of the Duke 's vassals , the Counts of Angoulême , who for generations had been accustomed to act as though they were independent princes , had twice conceded defeat , in 1176 and 1179 . |
| 9 | Though clearly , whatever the logic of the situation , Hitler could still rely upon substantial bonds of undying allegiance among his most loyal supporters , especially of course those who for years had been exposed to the full brunt of Party organization and indoctrination , there seems little doubt that the mass base of unquestioned trust in Hitler was already in 1942 beginning to give way . |
| 10 | Some of his oldest friends , who for years had been accustomed to seeing him , fat and genial , as the leading light of a pig-sticking expedition , were astonished to hear him now holding forth like a veritable Newton or Faraday and discussing the latest discoveries in medicine as fluently as if they were entries in the Bengal Club Cup or the Planters ' Handicap . |
| 11 | Meanwhile , he enters 1991 without an economic plan or budget ( so everyone is having to improvise with last year 's targets ) , and without a prime minister to blame for mismanagement ( Nikolai Ryzhkov , who for months had been under pressure to resign and was about to be sidelined anyway , had a heart attack on December 25th ) . |