Example sentences of "they can [verb] be " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | A hyaena 's nasal membranes have a surface area fifty times bigger and the richness of the information they can gather is so great and varied that it is difficult for us to appreciate it . |
| 2 | Now uranium erm is , is er a non-renewable resource like oi oil and coal and gas but there 's an awful lot of it in the world and this is erm the reserves of the energy they can give are compared to the remaining reserves of coal or and er gas , you can see it 's one of the largest energy resources on on earth . |
| 3 | All they can give is advice ’ |
| 4 | All they can give is advice . ’ |
| 5 | This means the type of information they can give is often different from that of other artefacts . |
| 6 | The IMF and the World Bank are not inexhaustible cornucopias — all they can do is to dispense whatever they receive from wealthy governments , ie , from taxpayers . |
| 7 | ‘ All they can do is recommend a test . |
| 8 | ‘ The worst they can do is send us back tae Glasgow . ’ |
| 9 | Secondly , what they can do is further restrained by an interlocking web of assumptions , rules and regulations . |
| 10 | Horizon made the usual mistake of talking about computers that can ‘ correct spelling errors ’ , when in fact all they can do is flag words that are not in a dictionary . |
| 11 | All they can do is to look at the evidence and decide what they are going to believe . |
| 12 | All they can do is be at the radio station on time , and play their funky music whenever placed on a stage . |
| 13 | In the past , they had a handsome lifestyle , but few of them have new projects to pursue ; all they can do is sit on their hands , rueing the day they paid so much for the land they were keen to build on . |
| 14 | What they can do is refuse to answer questions , not allow MPs to speak in the House , stop people going on visits overseas . |
| 15 | Informants can not , of course , be expected to quantify degrees of abnormality ; but what they can do is distinguish a fully normal sentence from one which is to some degree odd . |
| 16 | Companies certainly try to control demand , to channel it in known directions , but they are never sure of their market ; the best they can do is to offer a ‘ cultural repertoire ’ , to cover a spread of the likely possibilities in order to minimize the risk — and it is this which accounts for the colossal overproduction of records and the large number that make a loss ( see Laing 1985 : 9–10 , 20 ; Frith 1983a : 92–102 ; Denisoff 1975 : 92–4 ) . |
| 17 | All they can do is exchange one form of wage slavery' for another . |
| 18 | What they can do is to consider whether at the time the decision was made it was intended by the patient to apply in the changed situation . |
| 19 | All we and they can do is to resist the degeneration of a justified action of international collective security into a United States ' imperial ego-trip , to stop the affair getting further out of hand , and in doing so to prevent the UN , the only available base for world order , from falling into lasting discredit . |
| 20 | Since the Ministers presenting this legislation hardly ever travel by bus , the least they can do is to listen to those who do so daily . |
| 21 | All they can do is to ensure that the decision-maker did have some reasonable grounds for his action . |
| 22 | All they can do is set trend targets and reward or penalize according to the degree to which they are met . |
| 23 | All they can do is give a ‘ true and fair view ’ . |
| 24 | Since the note on this subject was published in the November Journal at p 372 , the Home Office have advised English JPs that they can not issue a certificate of good repute and of no previous bankruptcy as such , and that all they can do is to take a statutory declaration of good repute , etc , from the individual concerned . |
| 25 | He continued : ‘ With criminal trespass , all they can do is go down on a daily basis and charge people . |
| 26 | But what they can do is to ensure that the additional factors of instability , caused by the economic hardship produced by the moves to a market economy , are kept to a minimum . |
| 27 | There 's not a lot they can do is there ? |
| 28 | Not much they can do is there ? |
| 29 | These two guys are meant to be on a Gipsy Working Party , finding somewhere for the gipsies to live , and all they can do is argue about it . |
| 30 | Well , er we 're not saying they do n't , er , you , we , we went there to protest nuclear testing , we knew that er you know , we , that that , that protest would be opposed , but now that those people have been seized , er surely the very least they can do is inform us that they 're safe and well , and where they are and what is being intended ; that , that is not , er that is not too much to ask . |