Example sentences of "[modal v] [verb] [be] [adj] [adj] [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | On this argument the graptolites should have been bottom dwelling-colonial organisms , living by filtering small particles of food from the water . |
| 2 | It was a zig-zag orange and blue striped towel , and it should have been dazzling white cotton , with a gold bracelet on his lean bronzed strong-muscled forearm . |
| 3 | The only head of public interest upon which the inspectors rely is the prevention of crime , and so the question to be answered is whether on the material before it the court should have been satisfied that disclosure of Mr. Warner 's sources is ‘ necessary … for the prevention of … crime ’ within the meaning of section 10 . |
| 4 | But there must have been other reactive effects which were more subtly marked than this and were concealed from the fieldworker . |
| 5 | I now realised that there must have been other little gaps and vacancies about the house but , between the tablets and the total absence of any careless talk , I had wiped the whole unfortunate episode right out of my head … |
| 6 | And it must have been cold bloody flat ! |
| 7 | Throughout our recent evolutionary history , particularly since the rise of a hunting way of life , there must have been extreme selective pressures in favour of our ability to co-operate as a group : organized food gathering and hunts are successful only if each member of the band knows his task and joins in with the activity of his fellows ; a good deal of restraint on natural impulses during the stalk and capture of the prey is likewise essential . |
| 8 | She 'll have been awake all night , thinking and thinking and thinking . |
| 9 | I liked to think it was because they thought he 'd failed , that our survival in the mountains had been his humiliation , but I would have to admit this might have been mere wishful thinking . |
| 10 | ‘ The schoolmaster looked out of the window across the square to the castle where he announced to the class that the flag was flying at half-mast , so he popped out to find out why , thinking it might have been dear old Queen Mary . |
| 11 | There might have been considerable constitutional difficulties if it had turned out that , for the last 10 years , Britain had been ruled by a Martian , or a robot , or a vampire . |
| 12 | All he could see was tough grey jelly plastered across his visor . |
| 13 | ‘ Hello , I 'm trying to clarify a rather confused report we 've picked up — I think from the local police — about an incident at the hospital last night , or it could have been early this morning . |
| 14 | I could have been married many times , as everyone knows , but I was always so involved with my father 's business and then my own , life was always so full , that I let the opportunities slip by . |
| 15 | These could have been gross bawdy parodies in the arena to the great delight of the multitude . |
| 16 | In a variation on this feat , the bull-leaper performed the ‘ Diving Leap ’ from a vantage point ; the large , stepped stone block in the north-west corner of the Bull Court at Phaistos was probably used for this purpose , and there may have been similar free-standing vaulting blocks at Knossos and Mallia . |
| 17 | He is frequently described as ‘ having the stoop of an ageing crop-picker and the face of a curious little boy ’ — which may have been true 30 years ago , but now belongs to the discard-tray with other caricatures : caricatures , as Oscar Wilde observed , are compliments that mediocrity pays to genius . |
| 18 | But the Sea Sparrows may have been tracking imaginary aircraft when they were fired . |
| 19 | Second , there may have been severe emotional damage in the past : broken or spoiled relationships with loved ones or with church leaders that have led to unbelief and lack of expectation that God would pour his Spirit into our lives . |
| 20 | Each section would have symbolic representation from the other section , but the effective outcome would have been face-to-face Israeli-Palestinian talks . |
| 21 | The 1966 inquiry plodded its way through an incredible number of excuses as to why Blake had not also been transferred and concluded that if Blake had been moved , and the child murderer left at Wormwood Scrubs had then escaped ( rather than Blake ) , there would have been great public criticism . |
| 22 | It is now regularly available at their surgery as part of free NHS care , a situation which would have been inconceivable ten years ago . |
| 23 | SUCH a scoreline would have been unimaginable this time last year , but Chelmsford 's new-found strengths more than Oxford 's incredible decline engineered this crushing English League win . |
| 24 | They would have been worried that word would get back — as , indeed , it does — and that the T'ang would act through his Ministers to make life awkward for them . |
| 25 | ‘ Unix Lite would have been okay four years ago , but with the performance and memory capacity of today 's machines — and their future potential — we do n't need cut-down Unix . |
| 26 | But neither he nor Antoinette are direct blood descendants of Monsieur de Rochefort , so there would have been heavy financial penalties attached to the inheritance . ’ |
| 27 | This would have been unthinkable 5 years ago . |
| 28 | ‘ The collection I showed this spring would have been unthinkable three years ago — so many dresses , so much evening wear . |
| 29 | Studies like those described by Dean ( 1982 ) , in which he attempted to distinguish between deficits in visual memory and visual object categorization following damage to part of the visual association cortex in rhesus monkeys , would have been unthinkable forty years ago . |
| 30 | NOT even the most imaginative of San Diego Chargers fans would have been entertaining Super Bowl thoughts after the team lost their first four games . |