Example sentences of "can hardly [vb infin] be " in BNC.
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| 1 | When there were contractors to be handed out directors may have tried to help one another , but that can hardly have been a sufficient reason for buying up large blocks of shares . |
| 2 | Having watched the ignominious departure of Mr Jakes , the president himself — which Mr Husak had become — can hardly have been surprised that his own head was now being demanded on a platter . |
| 3 | Given the size of the loans to Mr Parretti , Alexis Wolkenstein , the head of the bank 's international division , and Jean-Yves Haberer , the bank 's chairman , can hardly have been unaware of its growing involvement with him . |
| 4 | Certainly he never made any secret of his Conservative past , having twice stood unsuccessfully for parliament among the miners of County Durham , where his air of a slightly lost rural dean can hardly have been an asset . |
| 5 | Given the state of the war , the undeniable growth of anti-Nazi feeling , and the rising criticism of Hitler himself , which we have been able to document for the years 1942–4 , such reports can hardly have been an accurate reflection of existing attitudes . |
| 6 | She recovered — though the royal nursery in Linlithgow can hardly have been a peaceful place , with its occupant combining convalescence with the more normal infant problem of teething ; but she was entirely well by the time Sadler saw her again , in early August . |
| 7 | This can hardly have been the enlightening effect of reason and liberty since in France the outcome of the same ideals was the triumph of the guillotine . |
| 8 | And if Madame stayed close to him , it can hardly have been because she thought he needed looking after . |
| 9 | It can hardly have been on account of the unanimous beliefs of the many Home Secretaries who passed through the department during the period — though it has to be said that only one , Roy Jenkins , showed any real interest in the issue and he did what he could to achieve action . |
| 10 | William 's choice of Sussex as his base can hardly have been random ; the pattern of Norman landholding and trade in the shire was already well-established and the comparative ease of establishing a military foothold well-known . |
| 11 | Nothing very dramatic here , then , but at least he was in the buying and selling game , not a wage slave , and there can hardly have been a time when it was not easier to sell the odd pork chop or two than it was to convince an employer that he ought to buy your skills as a craftsman . |
| 12 | ) Life in Frome , for all the town , s comparative isolation , can hardly have been dull . |
| 13 | She can hardly have been surprised that the spotlight stayed on her marriage — her husband is , after all , the man who will be our next king . |
| 14 | He can hardly have been wearing a ski mask in the street at that hour of the morning , whether it was snowing or not . ’ |
| 15 | Its population at this time can hardly have been less than 50,000 and may easily have been well over 60,000 . |
| 16 | Carew 's bleak diagnosis can hardly have been uninfluenced by several decades of mounting concern at the impermanence of non-agricultural employment compared with the stability of farmers fully occupied tending their land , and men continuously employed as servants in husbandry engaged for a year at a time . |
| 17 | If Jesus numbered such figures as Simon the Zealot and Judas the Sicarius among his followers , those followers can hardly have been as placid and peaceable as later tradition maintains . |
| 18 | The incident can hardly have been a minor affair . |
| 19 | Those nerve-racking hours , with the armies drawn up in battle array in sight of each other , can hardly have been the best of times for a calm discussion of the problem of the succession . |
| 20 | In one family the daughters " attended dances " regularly , but these can hardly have been like the dance-halls of the inter-war period . |
| 21 | Though Ealing itself doubled in size between 1861 and 1871 and grew by over half in each of the two following decades , the first of these increases can hardly have been the result of the railway services although the later ones may have been . |
| 22 | ‘ L'Etat c'est moi ’ was a shrewd remark , but can hardly have been intended as a definition even in the France of the time . |
| 23 | There can hardly have been any business sector with so many strong contenders for it as the banking sector . |
| 24 | It can hardly have been removed or destroyed to prevent us learning about the fight between Middlemass and Lorrimer . |
| 25 | The rather clumsy adaptations of his Masses , The Meane Mass and Small Devotion , to English words can hardly have been his own . |
| 26 | Unlike the Joie de Vivre , which was intended to soothe and delight the eye , the Demoiselles can hardly have been calculated to please . |
| 27 | We do not know how they were elected ; but in practice it can hardly have been more than a co-optation . |
| 28 | One can understand this , perhaps , in the fragmentary record of a rare and little-known group , but the Mesozoic brachiopods are now very thoroughly documented in every stage and the relations of these large and distinctive forms can hardly have been missed . |
| 29 | For my part , there can hardly have been a day when I did not think of Eliot , when his growing prestige was not a source of immense satisfaction and pride to me , and when personal news about him , however brief , was more than welcome at such distance than propinquity without meeting would have been . |
| 30 | Does he agree that Scottish agriculture , including north of Scotland agriculture , can hardly have been — |