Example sentences of "had been [v-ing] " in BNC.

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1 Closures of railway lines had been taking place for many years , accelerated by the growing availability of cars in the 1950s .
2 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 .
3 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 . ’
4 Discussions had been taking place since the middle of last week .
5 Mr Major had been taking private soundings about such a move before Christmas .
6 Perhaps she had been taking too little care , or perhaps it was the strain of the bereavement coming out in physical symptoms .
7 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 .
8 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 .
9 Ann had been taking an antidepressant for 6 months without much benefit .
10 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 .
11 For many months a nurse had been taking care of Mary , described by everyone as a gentle , retiring person .
12 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 .
13 Nigger Asnett , who had been taking it very easy since his homecoming , decided it was time to start work .
14 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 .
15 As one walked outside , another began arguing with Dad who was , naturally , absolutely furious at what had been taking place .
16 Eddie Chattaway had been taking part in the tournament for over twenty years before he loosed his winning arrow in 1977 .
17 The Golf Information Centre telephonists , recently trained in passable French , had been taking advanced bookings from around the world .
18 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 .
19 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 .
20 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 .
21 Since 1955 at Harwell construction had been taking place of ZETA — a 3 metre diameter doughnut shaped vacuum chamber containing deuterium plasma .
22 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 .
23 Yet he knew I had been taking the Pill every day . ’
24 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 .
25 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 .
26 Certainly nobody had been taking any notice of this one — but then , had n't he been playing very badly , anyway ?
27 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 .
28 Reuben Boll had been taking the last part of his annual leave .
29 Kochen maintained that DEC had been taking a worldwide census of ‘ hundreds of customers ’ recently to ascertain whether OSF/1-on-MIPS was a viable policy .
30 The other women often talked about young men they knew , and one of them had been taking a young man back to her flat during the evenings .
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