Example sentences of "[pers pn] had [been] at [adj] [noun] " in BNC.

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1 I had been at great pains to appear distant towards him and been more successful than I had thought I could be .
2 According to these ladies , I had been at certain times a pirate , a builder , a healer , a spiritual teacher , a red Indian and a nun .
3 But Alicia Lockwood at seventy-nine had been as strong-willed as she had been at any time of her life .
4 He went on to say that they had been at great pains to build up an efficient fifth-column unit and should not be expected to give up their best men as soon as they were trained .
5 It is a decay that became inevitable when the infamous Beeching Plan substituted the crass motif of economic viability for that of communal need , and ripped out the steel vertebrae of the nation , leaving whole areas more isolated than they had been at any time since the eighteenth century .
6 It had been at one time , going back over a hundred and fifty years , it had been what they called a combination poorhouse .
7 This did not mean a dramatic drop in popularity : indeed , his approval rating was higher in 1966 and early 1967 than it had been at any point since the Algerian crisis .
8 Ghandi , I think , in the early eighties epitomised , to a large degree , and attitude of concern about erm violence , and I think that in some large measure the sort of recognition that it gained , particularly in the awards and so on , had a lot to do with its subject matter as against it 's actual execution , and I think that if it had been at another time , or if the subject matter had n't been erm quite as powerful as that old genius 's life was , I do n't think it would have won the awards .
9 He had been at such pains .
10 He had been at this cure for a mere four years but his reputation was growing fast .
11 Ever since he had been at high school he 'd found some enjoyment and relief by getting back at them in ways they obviously did n't expect .
12 Even Boddy , who had been telling Westerman as they came down the stairs how he had been at Bad Godesberg in 1938 just two days after Hitler and Chamberlain had left , trailed away into silence .
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