Example sentences of "they [was/were] [verb] to [be] " in BNC.
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| 31 | In addition they were perceived to be inefficient , measured in terms of productivity , and also unprofitable , causing a drain on public finances . |
| 32 | Both Warnie and Minto were jealous of anyone who claimed Jack 's love ; this meant that they were bound to be jealous of one another , since for both of them Jack was the most important person in the universe . |
| 33 | And with those computers they were bound to be receptive . ’ |
| 34 | It was positively dangerous because it involved the Jews in a game in which they were bound to be discredited . |
| 35 | At the time , they were believed to be the bones of James . |
| 36 | They were believed to be suffering from exhaustion and hypothermia . |
| 37 | They were getting to be quite good friends now , after an initial slightly guilty mistrust on Belinda 's part . |
| 38 | The medical profession found his theories very difficult to shake off , even when they were demonstrated to be manifestly false . |
| 39 | I thought they were pretending to be offended — but people were honestly upset by it and I was flabbergasted . ’ |
| 40 | The party 's spin-doctors had remained sceptical about the polls , but they were expecting to be able to argue that the Conservatives had lost their mandate , even if they were clinging to power in a hung parliament . |
| 41 | ‘ The public were placed in fear when they were expecting to be shopping peacefully . |
| 42 | To aggravate all this further , the records all sound as though they were designed to be played on compact disc . |
| 43 | That means that they were designed to be viewed right through at one sitting . |
| 44 | They were allowed to be " autonomous participants in international and foreign economic ties " . |
| 45 | If all Preston 's childhood friends had lined up against a wall , as when they were waiting to be picked for football , Preston would most likely have left William to pretty near the end and then put him at left back , or somewhere he would do the least damage to his own side . |
| 46 | Others living at the house said they were waiting to be reunited with Marita and her Mr Loren to find out exactly what happened . |
| 47 | They were meant to be a pro group while we were just starting out . |
| 48 | They were meant to be for his weight but I 'm not sure I believe that . |
| 49 | There were hundreds of companies coming to us for funds and they were meant to be writing their business plans properly and cogently . |
| 50 | They were meant to be The Rolling Stones of their time . |
| 51 | Most of all , although they were meant to be secret , these were secrets that were fairly indifferently kept ; if , indeed , they were kept at all . |
| 52 | No-one was quite sure whether they were meant to be in fancy dress but anyhow there were a couple decent Santa 's , a smith grinding policeman , and a ridiculous looking Dave ‘ Kowabunga-Mutant-Ninja-Turtle-Most-Unfortunately-named-clothing-company-of-the-century ’ Davis , dressed in poncho and sombrero . |
| 53 | The National Sound Archive does n't claim to be the natural home for gramophones or other equipment , but it does have a small historical collection , because to understand the recordings , some knowledge of how they were meant to be played is desirable . |
| 54 | This way she could simply wash it each morning and let it dry naturally — start trying for styles and valuable minutes had to be wasted keeping them the way they were meant to be . |
| 55 | They can never realize the parental aspiration other than in a superficial way , and they are left not only with the envy of the sex they were meant to be , but also unable to enjoy the sex which they are and the advantages which pertain to it . |
| 56 | They were meant to be devoid of personal feelings , deadpan , like lawyers who had to defend a case they did n't believe in , who went home at the end of the day leaving all their patients ' foibles filed away in their consulting rooms . |
| 57 | That 's all they had to go on — they did n't even know what key they were meant to be playing in . |
| 58 | In the darkness they seemed not the amusing and-loveable clowns they were meant to be but somehow menacing . |
| 59 | Well , when Wyn had his stethoscope in his ears I wondered if they were meant to be him . |
| 60 | I knew that they were sincere and above all that they were meant to be helpful . |