Example sentences of "had only been " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | as if all the work of the past four months had only been a dream , the cutting and the drilling , the painting , the moulding of the lead wire . |
| 2 | Yet it was as though that night , in the moonlight , in the silence , as though even the work , the months of steady labour , had only been an illusion , only the dream of work , the dream of progress , and I had not even begun and never would begin , though at different moments in my life I might have had the illusion that I had begun and even , perhaps , finished . |
| 3 | Carefully he tried again but Cameron took his arm and told him not to hurry unduly , the joists had only been pinned in place and they were still waiting for the long nails from Grandtully . |
| 4 | The East Grinstead scheme had only been authorised because of the need to replace asbestos-infected elderly diesel multiple units and by demonstrating that no new rolling stock would be required . |
| 5 | A typical example is the 1978 Tremadoc Guidebook comment after the first ascent of Fingerlicker in 1975 , where alone in that guide it was pointed out that the route had only been climbed after two ‘ Yo-Yo 's ’ ( according to the 1975 definition of a Yo-Yo ) . |
| 6 | But John Bullock , senior partner at Deloitte UK , admitted that Touche Ross had only been informed of his decision not to merge with them ‘ a few days ago ’ . |
| 7 | The Cobra had only been around since 1962 , but the Ace , on which it was based , dated back to 1953 , when it had been launched at Earls Court . |
| 8 | This legislation had been hailed as a powerful weapon with which to seize drug barons ' fortunes but up to May last year police and Customs investigators had only been able to confiscate £11 million . |
| 9 | In 1967 , when Mr Ceausescu had only been in power two years , he complained about the security forces taking unjustified measures against the people . |
| 10 | He recognised his ex-pupil 's handwriting on a letter and thereby identified the highwayman — even though Turpin had only been his pupil for three quarters of a year . |
| 11 | I was sorry for Jennifer but they had only been going out for a month or so , and not terribly seriously . |
| 12 | Assuming the car had gone missing at the same ti me as Angela Morgan , it might have been there for over a week ; it had only been found that evening by a uniformed constable who was keeping his eyes open . |
| 13 | American critics of the $25 billion buy-out of RJR Nabisco in 1988–89 lamented this treatment of a ‘ fine old American company ’ , yet conveniently forgot that it had only been formed in 1985 when R.J. Reynolds merged with Nabisco Brands , which in turn had only been formed in 1981 when Nabisco merged with Standard Brands . |
| 14 | American critics of the $25 billion buy-out of RJR Nabisco in 1988–89 lamented this treatment of a ‘ fine old American company ’ , yet conveniently forgot that it had only been formed in 1985 when R.J. Reynolds merged with Nabisco Brands , which in turn had only been formed in 1981 when Nabisco merged with Standard Brands . |
| 15 | But he had only been away for three days . |
| 16 | By the end of 1926 , the General Council was advancing the argument , with some justification , that the General Strike had only been an attempt to warn employers that the problems of industry could not constantly be tackled at the expense of the standard of living of the workers . |
| 17 | Then discussion began : if it had been a man , and if he had died , the peace should be 10,000 dinars ; but Nuri was a boy , he had only been stabbed , so 2000 was about the right amount . |
| 18 | Mr Powell had only been back twice in nearly 20 years . |
| 19 | ‘ We will want to know if the warning lights had only been flashing for 10 seconds and not 30 . ’ |
| 20 | Borg had only been at Meadow Park since late last season , when he was appointed following the dismissal of John Clements . |
| 21 | Mr Sinclair said the gun had only been fired once , but two entry wounds had been made in Mr Jowett 's back because the the bullet had parted with its jacket . |
| 22 | Whilst numbers of full-time farmers had fallen by 28% in the past ten years there had only been an 8% reduction in the number of part-time farmers . |
| 23 | There had only been a few sharp yelps of pain . |
| 24 | Hitherto there had only been four or five types available in England . |
| 25 | He was struck by the discovery of a version of the enzyme which previously had only been reported in a clinical isolate of Salmonella typhimurium from New Zealand |
| 26 | High levels of nitrate can cause ‘ blue baby syndrome ’ ( infantile methaemoglobinaemia ) , which is potentially fatal ( see below : Government Advice ) , but there had only been 3,000 cases worldwide since 1945 , and 14 in the UK since 1950 . |
| 27 | And it had only been the rear of the house that had been knocked down . |
| 28 | If it had only been possible to hold the conference without him ! |
| 29 | Many a case had only been solved by a combination of Morton 's flair and his own instincts . |
| 30 | ‘ And you , ’ I asked , hungry to question a culture I had only been able to observe , ‘ what do you consider yourself to be ? ’ |