Example sentences of "had been [verb] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | This was the first time a fully operational power plant had been decommissioned . |
| 2 | Edinburgh , Glasgow , and London ( particularly Imperial College ) universities have all been involved in major research projects in this area , although the major structural problems had been elucidated in 1906 by scientists from the then Geological Survey of Scotland ( Peach and others . |
| 3 | Nevertheless , at Verdun when the battle began it had been outmatched — in numbers alone — by nearly five to one . |
| 4 | Closures of railway lines had been taking place for many years , accelerated by the growing availability of cars in the 1950s . |
| 5 | The priest , with folded hands and closed eyes , recited Grace , and the meal began : soup served by a daughter of the same sister of Rose 's who had been taking the photos ; chicken and ham , with salad . |
| 6 | Although the British Government ruled out the prospect of the US company buying Austin Rover , within days of it leaking out that talks had been taking place , Bob Lutz , Ford of Europe chairman , said : ‘ I honestly believe it would have been best for Britain . ’ |
| 7 | Discussions had been taking place since the middle of last week . |
| 8 | Mr Major had been taking private soundings about such a move before Christmas . |
| 9 | Perhaps she had been taking too little care , or perhaps it was the strain of the bereavement coming out in physical symptoms . |
| 10 | After a dress rehearsal for a Symphony Hour show , I suggested , as producer , that in the adagio movement of the main symphonic item the violins had been taking the tempo slightly too fast . |
| 11 | We had been taking into the adult wards men and women suffering from the most serious fevers , encephalitis lethargica , polio-encephalitis , serious poliomyelitis , with two ‘ Iron lung ’ cases in a special isolation ward and unit , tuberculous meningitis , and poliomeningitis were also with us . |
| 12 | Ann had been taking an antidepressant for 6 months without much benefit . |
| 13 | On the day she took her overdose , Pamela had been taking her end-of-term examination in Biology and English , but thought that she had done very badly . |
| 14 | For many months a nurse had been taking care of Mary , described by everyone as a gentle , retiring person . |
| 15 | We had indeed , and Denis was in a filthy mood because his motorbike had died on him on the way into Cambridge and he had had to push it five miles back — and he had been taking his temper out on me ever since lunchtime . |
| 16 | Nigger Asnett , who had been taking it very easy since his homecoming , decided it was time to start work . |
| 17 | The Local Plan inquiry had been taking place and the village had made a large input thanks to help from Rear Admiral Charles Weston and Christine Darter , who had devoted time and effort in presenting the parish point of view on many matters . |
| 18 | As one walked outside , another began arguing with Dad who was , naturally , absolutely furious at what had been taking place . |
| 19 | Eddie Chattaway had been taking part in the tournament for over twenty years before he loosed his winning arrow in 1977 . |
| 20 | The Golf Information Centre telephonists , recently trained in passable French , had been taking advanced bookings from around the world . |
| 21 | Mr Butler had been taking a collection-box home when he was attacked on the Tube , kicked in the face , kneed in the stomach , had his head banged against a door and almost strangled . |
| 22 | These and others were named as Members of the new London Passenger Transport Board in May 1933 , but moves had been taking place behind the scenes from the beginning of the year . |
| 23 | He had had to ask Hank the name of the principal and what courses he had been taking , since he had never bothered to inquire about these before . |
| 24 | Since 1955 at Harwell construction had been taking place of ZETA — a 3 metre diameter doughnut shaped vacuum chamber containing deuterium plasma . |
| 25 | Jessamyn lay flat on the contoured table as the Doc sliced away the facial bandages , still relaxed from the morph-plus shots she had been taking every day . |
| 26 | Yet he knew I had been taking the Pill every day . ’ |
| 27 | Builder Dave Young , wife Jane and son Paul , three — who had been taking a dip in the hotel pool — were left with just the costumes they had on . |
| 28 | It might have been a delayed reaction to the drugs I had been taking for an operation I 'd recently had on my foot , but this seemed unlikely . |
| 29 | Certainly nobody had been taking any notice of this one — but then , had n't he been playing very badly , anyway ? |
| 30 | Where others were most sharply conscious of the crisis posed for theology by the development of modern culture and the change in our self-awareness , he saw the real crisis as lying in the inability of theology to do justice to its object , and called it to look in the opposite direction from that it had been taking . |