Example sentences of "[was/were] less a " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | In the latter union these changes ‘ were less a surrender of power to the shopfloor than a formal accommodation to the reality of decentralisation which had occurred during the post-war years ’ ( Hyman , 1983 , p. 42 ) . |
| 2 | But clean-ups and purges were less a sustained policy than a reaction to popular events and anxieties . |
| 3 | The words were less a request than an order . |
| 4 | If it were less an absurdity , the House of Commons would have to take it seriously . |
| 5 | The ending of what amounted to class segregation was less a matter of the democratic spirit of professionals finally asserting itself than of the decline of the amateur . |
| 6 | It was less a programme for socialism than a commitment to social reform . |
| 7 | My rejection of death was less a denial than a postponement of the recognition of its ultimate reality . |
| 8 | The dispute between Derrida and Foucault was less a question of text versus history than an argument about history itself . |
| 9 | The company was less a victim of the recession than of the peace dividend , having geared up for military orders which failed to materialise . |
| 10 | I acquainted the Principal with the burden of my reply to Rosa : I had explained that it was less a question of manners than of physiology , and that extreme decrepitude and senescence did often lead to withering of the bicep and tricep muscles , which in turn led to a breakdown in the chain of command from cerebral GHQ to courting finger . |
| 11 | In essence this was less a system than the resort by the Crown to whatever means came to hand for raising and controlling money . |
| 12 | Bolshevik influence before the war was less a cause than a consequence of the radicalism of the Russian working class . |
| 13 | What is seldom revealed in the history books , though perfectly easy to verify , is that Darwin 's contribution was less a paper than a rambling series of notes which contained nothing novel , whereas Wallace 's " Ternate " paper was the first complete exposition in writing of " Descent and Divergence with modification through variation and Natural Selection " — which is the very kernel of what has become known as the " Darwinian " theory of evolution . |
| 14 | Indeed , as has already been highlighted in the previous discussion of cultural politics , the opposition between progressive and reactionary forces became so marked with the rise of fascism that it was less a question of reactionary versus progressive culture , than a struggle for the very existence of culture itself . |
| 15 | Because I was less a true coward , a calculating coward , than someone so innocent , or so Greek , that he could not see what the war had to do with him . |
| 16 | For him , as for Neruda and others , Communism was less a political philosophy than a metaphysical need . |
| 17 | It was less a matter of some technical revelation than the fact that , after a difficult first 18 months with Zachary , this once fiery soul learned to put things into perspective . |
| 18 | There were times when she did n't mind Star 's anger , times even when she deliberately provoked it , waiting with half-shameful excitement for the extra-ordinary outburst of bitterness and despair of which she herself was less a victim than a privileged spectator , relishing even more the inevitable remorse and self-incrimination , the sweetness of reconciliation . |
| 19 | Since the Carlists were unlikely to accept any kind of power-sharing arrangement , it was less a question of making a political pact with them than of imposing the desired situation on them and limiting as far as possible their capacity to reject it . |
| 20 | Second , Mr Deng was less an idealist than a sensible moderniser and nationalist . |
| 21 | What is especially surprising is that its motivation was less an emotional regard for historical associations than a belief in the value to science of archaeological remains . |