Example sentences of "could not [verb] [verb] " in BNC.
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| 31 | Large-scale employers could not fail to appreciate their dependence upon the regime for a cheap and docile work-force . |
| 32 | ‘ This , ’ he added , ‘ with a production characterised by a noble simplicity , could not fail to stir the emotions , deepened by the pure sincerity of starry-eyed child-actors . |
| 33 | I could not fail to speculate about what might have happened had Leslie remained in his original regiment . |
| 34 | Yet its supporters could not fail to realize the possibility of attracting a section of the Liberal Party , which was still represented in the official Party . |
| 35 | But along that bare and silvery rim of sand , any self-respecting wild thing could not fail to see me first . |
| 36 | Whatever the conditions and the nature of the crowd , observers could not fail to see that the movies were being enjoyed . |
| 37 | It was from the same haunts as the tarsier that the original " Wild Man of Borneo " — the orangutan , or " man of the forest " — was to reveal himself : a creature so vulnerable , so resonant with human emotion , that we could not fail to see ourselves in him . |
| 38 | I could not fail to see that all , men , women and children , wore nothing in the tropical heat but a band — in the case of the women this was quite ornate — around their middles , leaving everything else uncovered . |
| 39 | His eyes met hers , dark and secret with a light behind them that she could not fail to see . |
| 40 | The train was at last " on different rails " and Unionists could not fail to rejoice at the disarray on the left , but the different rails might prove more suitable for Trotsky 's " locomotive of History " than for Unionist imperialism . |
| 41 | Constance could not fail to detect the bitterness in the voice , belying the smile on the lips . |
| 42 | They remembered Phoebe from Oxford days , and she could not fail to notice their thinly veiled compassion for Rachel that her brilliant daughter should have turned out so odd , so unsatisfactory . |
| 43 | Even Paul , immersed in himself as usual , could not fail to notice Dinah 's red eyes and white cheeks . |
| 44 | Anyone close to Laura could not fail to notice her ability to ensure reality remained in the next room . |
| 45 | The audience who had loved him as a stage juvenile were themselves growing old , and could not fail to notice the signs of ageing in their idol . |
| 46 | Nevertheless , many on the Left could not fail to notice the consistent attempts of the Party to benefit from the Civil War . |
| 47 | By the same token , protest in these larger enterprises brought immediate intervention by police or even troops : the workers could not fail to associate the political authorities with the hated employer . |
| 48 | Apart from that , I had said more or less what I wanted to say in a way that I thought Belinda could not fail to admire . |
| 49 | Her eyes strayed to the card that she still held in her hand and she almost started as she saw , written in plain bold print , a name that had featured with such regularity recently in the headlines of the business section of the local newspaper that she could not fail to recognise it . |
| 50 | As I approached , the narrow front door opened , and out came a figure I could not fail to recognize , Edward Rochester . |
| 51 | Something which she , brought up in a crowded street , could not fail to recognize . |
| 52 | Nevertheless , he could not fail to have heard of the protest movement which originated with Jean Jacques Rousseau ( 1712–78 ) . |
| 53 | Yet the marked expansion in the French kingdom 's territorial size between 1204 and 1259 could not fail to have an impact upon such claims to autonomy and independence . |
| 54 | Bernard could not fail to have been impressed by such spontaneous enthusiasm ; equally , Peter felt Bernard was ‘ obviously a man of excitement heading a most intriguing company , I could see that he needed someone to deal with the administration leaving him free to run his company . ’ |
| 55 | Seb thought that if Anna was anywhere within this part of the forest she could not fail to hear the searchers . |
| 56 | One could not fail to understand that . |
| 57 | The point I am making here is based on an observation by Stanley Cavell ( 1979 , p. 460 ) and repeated by him in many contexts : ‘ a human being could not fail to know , confronting me , that I am a human being ’ . |
| 58 | The caprice and incompetence of the bureaucracy , the arbitrary administration of justice , the seemingly ubiquitous police could not fail to affront at least some among an élite increasingly conscious of their own dignity . |
| 59 | Then , the decisive factor could not fail to become what it is in Ireland : just popularity . |
| 60 | It was because Pound behaved always in the spirit of this remark that he could not fail to offend Englishmen of the type of Beerbohm and Bowra , and that he continues to offend their likes and their successors ( in all social classes ) at the present day , as , for instance , his confrere T.S . |