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Example sentences of "could not [be] [vb pp] if " in BNC.

No	Sentence
1	The compensation could not be increased if the council had lost it 's appeal and it would therefore remain as a maximum of £1 million .
2	It had been learnt that progress could not be made if a member state objected strenuously to a particular part of a programme .
3	Three years of bloodshed and misery could not be justified if the outcome were a return to the pre-Republican status quo .
4	Her a very pale grey pastel was dragged over orange , giving a lovely luminous effect which could not be achieved if the two colours were blended together with the finger .
5	Clearly , the comment that " Smith is a disgrace to human nature " could not be defended if the stated fact , ie that Smith was a patricide , was false .
6	She has challenged certain long-established political assumptions : that a government could not be re-elected if it presided over a massive increase in unemployment ; or that a government had to govern with the consent and co-operation of the major interests , particularly business and the unions .
7	This meant that it could not be used if it was the result of a ‘ fear of prejudice or hope of advantage , exercised or held out by a person in authority ’ or if it was occasioned by ‘ oppression ’ .
8	He allowed himself , or claimed to allow himself , no beliefs about the world which could n't be justified if , if , even if only in a very loose sense , by scientific canons of procedure .
9	But this could n't be helped if I was serious about training Dawn , which I was .
10	It could n't be helped if she was a pickpocket .
11	I just wonder erm , if this could n't be helped if you like , by increasing them rather than decreasing them , taking over perhaps some of the , not absolutely statutory , but some of the extra use of staff , and I do n't know if it 's possible , but at the moment I worry because some of the homes are only being inspected and visited by members anyway .