Example sentences of "had [been] [verb] for [det] [noun] " in BNC.

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1 I am convinced that stuff had been accumulating for many years in this cellar and that Ernest Griffiths had no idea what was in there .
2 The US and North Korean governments had been communicating for several years at a low level through the US embassy in Beijing .
3 The report lists ‘ many faults ’ inherent in the way the railway had been run for several years .
4 They posed for photographers at the star-studded show , giving the lie to rumours they had been separated for several weeks .
5 It had been recognised for some time that only through rationalisation into larger productive and distributive units could the movement overcome the damaging rivalries among societies in the same neighbourhood , and through economies of scale promote further growth .
6 A report to the meeting said services to the region had been deteriorating for several years , with fewer trains running at less flexible times .
7 A report to the meeting said services to the region had been deteriorating for several years , with fewer trains at less flexible times .
8 Another suggestion was that an entire class of LMS express locomotives had been withdrawn for some reason .
9 The most recent outstanding event in Jim 's distinguished career was the publication of his definitive catalogue of the collections of Christ Church , Oxford , on which he had been engaged for several years , coinciding with the opening of the new galleries to contain them .
10 Film shown on Algerian television that same evening recorded that he had been speaking for some minutes .
11 Both countries had been speaking for some time of their desire to improve relations , without making much progress .
12 To judge by the clutter of bottles , glasses , and over-filled ashtrays , and the brooding , weary faces , they had been debating for many hours .
13 The consultative document published in 1987 followed the principle that had been acknowledged for some time , drawing a distinction between essential items which were to remain free , and desirable but not essential items for which charges could be made , a distinction not in practice very easy to make .
14 Many had been decomposing for several weeks .
15 This was reportedly a concession which US oil companies had been seeking for some time .
16 For the first time she recognized that secretly she had been looking for some way out for herself and Midnight .
17 The City and the Confederation of British Industry had been looking for some indication of earlier participation in the exchange rate mechanism of the EMS .
18 The phone had been ringing for some time .
19 Also in the field of biogeography world maps of plant formations had been utilized for many years and had indeed been adopted as the basis for some climatic classification by attempting to fit the classification to the plant distribution .
20 By the time I was twelve years old I had been thinking for some time about getting a bird of my own .
21 In fact , he was so happy with the idea that had come to him from the writer , Peter Shaffer , he began the serious rethink of his career which friends like Lance Percival had been thinking for some time was overdue .
22 Concern had been voiced for some time by the Office of Fair Trading ( OFT ) as to the restrictive practices maintained by the Stock Exchange :
23 Relations with China , which had been strained for many years since the 1962 war between the two countries , gradually improved after Rajiv Gandhi 's visit to Beijing on Dec. 19-23 , 1988 , the first to China by an Indian Prime Minister for 34 years .
24 Relations between this group and the government had been strained for some years because of the sect 's links with Libya and its occupation of a disputed eight-acre site west of the capital , where it had built a commune .
25 Relations between the Meskhetians and the Uzbek majority had been strained for some time , largely as a result of the poor housing and other conditions in which the Meskhetians had been forced to remain ( many still lived in shanty towns , and levels of unemployment were higher than elsewhere in the republic ) .
26 The Old Stopfordians ' Association had been trying for many years to raise sufficient money to build the Pavilion , and indeed had sold the Harrison Towns field some three years previously for this very reason .
27 It would have been more usual to have asked her with careful casualness to wait behind after the meeting but what he had to say was private and he had been trying for some weeks now to cut down the number of times when they were known to be alone together .
28 When they had been seated for some time Titch said : ‘ I suppose you 've heard the news ? ’
29 All had been festering for many years .
30 One EC official said yesterday that the problem of fraud involving the Vatican had been understood for several years , and that attempts were being made to stamp it out .
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