Example sentences of "[noun] could have been [verb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | If the unidentified letters had been " sharE " then a number of words could have been presented . |
| 2 | Out on the pathway leading to the gate he took her arm , saying , ‘ She gets dafter as she gets older , ’ but there was such warmth in his tone that his words could have been translated as , ‘ Is n't she marvellous ! ’ |
| 3 | Pete Roche now believes that if the Scottish Miners Union leader Mick McGahey — a communist who supported the then official party policy of ‘ nuclear power with copper-bottomed safety ’ — had encouraged greater trade union involvement , a more substantial opposition could have been mounted . |
| 4 | His distress could have been alleviated with treatment far earlier if he had been diverted into the hospital system straight from the police station , or direct from the court , rather than via prison . |
| 5 | If this were true , and if oceanic crust was being generated at all the oceanic ridges in the world at this rate throughout geological history , then the entire present oceanic crust could have been formed in a mere couple of hundred million years , and therefore , without some other kind of process acting , there would be a vast quantity of spare oceanic crust lying around . |
| 6 | Darwin was anxious to show that even quite complex adaptations could have been built up gradually by natural selection from rudimentary origins that were common to all animals and plants . |
| 7 | The seller was liable even though by a simple process of warming , the bulk could have been made soft . |
| 8 | That blood could have been shed . |
| 9 | Without it , it is doubtful whether the more extreme pacifists could have been persuaded to take part in the canvassing . |
| 10 | Inspector Brian Jaggs , of Braintree police , said yesterday that according to the alarm company the only way the £8,000 car could have been taken was to be physically removed by trailer , and it was likely it was stolen to order . |
| 11 | The half-boiled storyline could have been poached from a hundred different games : Dizzy and Daisy were in the Enchanted Forest collecting cherries when they became hopelessly lost . |
| 12 | A stranger could have been excused had he mistaken Joe for a gentleman of middle eastern origin . |
| 13 | Third , it would have been better to use freelances whose connection with the DGSE could have been denied , whereas both Mafart and Prieur made telephone calls to DGSE numbers in France when first arrested . |
| 14 | A serpentine commode , the central section of which pulled out as a silver table , and a Russian mirror of the 1790s supported on twisting ormolu snakes could have been sold many times over . |
| 15 | This is the time when what was to become known as civilisation could have been detected , and is the period to which the origins of the concept of ‘ goodness ’ can be attributed . |
| 16 | This result could have been spelled out more clearly in the statutes but it seems to me to follow from the provisions of the statutes as they stand and , contrary to the argument of Mr. Page , to be no more curious than the alternative for which he contends . |
| 17 | This result could have been anticipated on the basis of aspirin 's non-selective inhibition of the synthesis of both pro-aggregatory and anti-aggregatory prostaglandins , and of the ineffectiveness of heparin for the inhibition of clot-associated thrombin . |
| 18 | Not much enlightenment there ; the same reply could have been given at any time in the past four years . |
| 19 | However , you could use that initial unthinking response to the idea " vicar " to fool your reader , as for instance in a short story , by saying no more about the vicar and elsewhere stating that the murder could have been committed only by a man of enormous physical strength . |
| 20 | And partly , on a more mundane level , the puzzle of how a murder could have been committed in what John Dickson Carr used to call a hermetically sealed chamber " is perhaps the most intriguing one in the detection writer 's whole bag of tricks . |
| 21 | The murder could have been sparked off by a minor row leading to a slap or punch . |
| 22 | He said : ‘ This tragedy could have been avoided because the method of decanting used in an enclosed space with a direct source of ignition available and the use of an unsuitable type of hand lamp did not constitute a safe system of working . ’ |
| 23 | I thought that private investment could have been used more imaginatively in the period of the 1980–1 recession and was not satisfied with the Treasury 's replies . |
| 24 | This , dear reader , is just the tiniest tip of an absolutely enormo iceberg : there 's heaps more stuff about the macabre , the theatrical and the perverted ; the awkward , the romantic and Suede 's ‘ extraordinary intensity ’ ; not to mention fairground mirrors and all the other fevered topics of conversation and how Suede are so quintessentially English the term could have been invented for them . |
| 25 | The weight could have been brought to Australia by Portuguese sailors up to 400 years prior to Captain Cook 's landing in Botany Bay in 1788 , suggests Ward . |
| 26 | So , the tree which from which bows used in the Battle of Agincourt could have been fashioned seems set to live on for a few more generations yet . |
| 27 | The upper make-up levels associated in the Report with the Baths could have been brought in from other parts of the town , and contain material contemporary with the construction , with coins of Pius , but very few of the coarse wares show developments later than the forum deposits , and there are still residual pieces : for example , the reeded rim carinated bowl is still there , two early flagon types and the mortaria of G ATTIVS MARINVS which probably date to c . |
| 28 | The experiment could have been improved if measurements had been made more accurately . |
| 29 | This is the " never knowingly undersold " strategy , by which the incumbent promises to reduce the price ex post should the consumer find that the good could have been obtained elsewhere more cheaply . |
| 30 | What other courses of action could have been pursued . |