Example sentences of "[was/were] [adv] a " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Indeed , one wonders sometimes whether the apparent simplicity of such political remedies has , in some peculiar way , affected the diagnosis of the supposed ‘ sickness ’ in the first place ( undesirable qualities , low levels of skill , weak subject expertise ) to which those remedies were presumably a response ; whether the remedies have produced the sickness , rather than vice versa . |
| 2 | Commius was forced to flee to Britain and he established himself as King of the British Atrebates which were presumably an earlier migrant group of the Gallic tribe of the same name . |
| 3 | ‘ But there were rather a lot of people about at the moorings this morning . |
| 4 | Leviticus was happy with the country , thought here were rather a lot of blacks around . |
| 5 | ‘ The shops were rather a home from home , not the most efficient of places , ’ says Major Bourne-Arton . |
| 6 | The shoes , though , were altogether a different matter . |
| 7 | Despite the higher standard of living they were offering most of their inhabitants , they were economically a little too isolated to attract much attention . |
| 8 | The detached , amused part of Phoebe sometimes thought that her main feeling at these parties was a wish that she , and everyone else too , would dare to improve the quality of the wine , but they were all too self-consciously afraid of being mistaken for Yuppies , despite the fact they were mostly a little too old and slightly too poor . |
| 9 | The art students were mostly a bunch of individualistic , head-in-the-sand poseurs . |
| 10 | They were mostly a little lonely and disorientated , enjoying none of the ( few ) advantages of the ordinary boarding-school , and too few in number to feel any sense of corporate identity . |
| 11 | It could be a useful raw material if there were locally a need for mild alkali in this form . |
| 12 | The Council issued a statement on 13 September , correcting some points in the press reports , emphasizing that the visiting party had indicated that it believed the Polytechnic had ‘ the potential to rectify the grave situation in which it finds itself , and stressing that the visiting party had not suggested that courses as currently taught were below an acceptable standard . |
| 13 | It would be mistaken to assume , however , that developments on a larger scale , financed by more prosperous contractors , were necessarily an improvement . |
| 14 | As in Egypt , aromatics were literally a way of life . |
| 15 | The first row of the audience were literally a few feet from my feet . |
| 16 | In these , according to Engels , ideas and institutions were merely a direct reflection of economy and technology . |
| 17 | If it were merely a handful of Irish psychopaths against us , they might be foiled by a piece of pasteboard with a photograph and some numbers stamped on it . |
| 18 | Maxwell Fyfe 's guidelines were never meant to be taken seriously but were merely a piece of bureaucratic window-dressing . |
| 19 | However if evil were merely a hateful and external power without echo in the hearts of the good , then someone might have to take the Ring to the Cracks of Doom , but it need not be Frodo : Gandalf could be trusted with it , while whoever went would have only to distrust his enemies , not his friends and not himself . |
| 20 | Their crimes were merely a low-grade reflection of the competitive and individualistic element in capitalism ; they indulged in an activity which , even in the form of mob violence , could never be effective in the revolutionary movement and , if not crushed , they were more likely to serve as ‘ part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue . ’ |
| 21 | The two of them were merely a couple of outstanding lady tennis players , one of whom had won Wimbledon . |
| 22 | Lévi-Strauss ' famous objections to Sartre , which appeared in the last chapter of The Savage Mind ( 1962 ) , are sometimes represented as if they were merely a structuralist attack on Marxism . |
| 23 | Once he had ( rightly ) rejected that argument , he treated the matter as one for the unfettered exercise of his discretion , in which W. 's views were merely a relatively unimportant factor , and expressed the view that his real choice was between the conflicting medical views of Dr. M. , the consultant psychiatrist in whose care W. had been for over a year , and Dr. G. , supported in the event by Dr. D. , another consultant psychiatrist with specialist experience in the field of anorexia nervosa . |
| 24 | Even at their best in the early '80s , with the great Alison Phillips on drums , they were merely a poor man 's Fall/Three Johns/Creepers , although always reliable for a good live set . |
| 25 | If it were merely a matter of eloquence , or energy or conviction , the education system , like other male institutions , would have been transformed by women already . |
| 26 | We have watched Eastern Europe grapple for freedom and the liberty that we enjoy , yet I have watched the House of Commons talk solemnly as if this were merely a question of a pile of money at one end of a table or the issuing of financial instruments . |
| 27 | We have watched eastern Europe grapple for freedom and the liberty that we enjoy , yet I have heard the House of Commons talk solemnly as if this were merely a question of a pile of money at one end of a table or the issuing of financial intruments . |
| 28 | He resisted , however , the notion that the polytechnics were merely a new breed of university . |
| 29 | Even at their best in the early '80s , with the great Alison Phillips on drums , they were merely a poor man 's Fall/Three Johns/Creepers , although always reliable for a good live set . |
| 30 | But formal requirements of this kind were merely a recognition of reality , of the fact that few diplomats could hope to live on their salaries . |