Example sentences of "[modal v] to have [be] [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Brady was yesterday reluctant to say too much on the subject of his meeting with some board members , but it was obvious that the details of what ought to have been private business becoming public knowledge had disturbed the manager . |
| 2 | Cope 's monopoly of artillery ought to have been decisive but the Highlanders were only 400 yards [ 365 m ] away when with a ‘ hideous shout ’ they burst out of the mist , with the sun behind them , and charged towards the inexperienced gunners , broadswords in hand , with a bloodcurdling yell . |
| 3 | That 's what I meant about the meta-metal , if you took it back to metal you could n't make up a page like your upper and lower case with a big R , unless you spent three years chiselling and fitting the thing , but somehow it looks as if it ought to have been possible to have done it in metal because that 's where it took its springboard from . |
| 4 | And the way she put it , she ought to have been alive today , she could have taught them how to tell people about sex . |
| 5 | These four cases are among a great number where ministers have in the past fixed a tariff period on material that was not available to the prisoner , and which in my opinion ought to have been available to him . |
| 6 | As a result Shildon had given her tasks which ought to have been easy . |
| 7 | Ceauşescu 's obsession with numbers ought to have been satisfied by the overmanning which already existed in Romanian industry which could not really provide productive employment for the existing population . |
| 8 | His view is that since there was little chance of a fascist state being formed in Britain the Labour Party ought to have been prepared to tackle fascism in a militant way and to strike a blow against the constitutional approach to politics which simply strengthened capitalism . |
| 9 | I ought to have been blind as well . |
| 10 | The irrationality of forcing undernourished women to bear children ought to have been obvious without the additional disincentives which the regime 's economic and social policies created . |
| 11 | But with hindsight , it ought to have been obvious . |
| 12 | ( iv ) If the creditor is aware , or ought to have been aware , that the surety has been subjected to undue influence by the debtor , it would be unlikely to be sufficient if the creditor merely took steps to ensure that the surety understood the nature of the liability he or she was accepting . |
| 13 | Francesca herself had characteristically taken the line that the Foreign Office ought to have been glad that someone on the staff was that closely involved with the American political Establishment . |
| 14 | They began their paper with the words : ‘ We have cared for a patient who , according to the textbooks , ought to have been dead , since his arterial p H was 6.59 , well outside the usually stated range of 6.8 to 7.8 ’ . |
| 15 | Mr Prescott said that the Safety Authority ought to have been able to answer the questions without reference to Eurotunnel . |
| 16 | But the Kuwaitis ' tactics and timing are interesting : as holder of the only stake smaller than Hongkong 's they ought to have been able to sway what threatened to be a contested offer . |
| 17 | Having been to a coeducational school , she did not find men a novelty , and in theory ought to have been able to discriminate better than Liz ( who endured some fairly dreadful experimental evenings in her search for entertainment ) , but her natural kindness made it almost impossible for her to refuse any overture , however offensive , however louche . |
| 18 | For surely he ought to have been able to explain to Colonel Hope , to persuade Colonel Hope , to arrive at a gentlemanly agreement — and what precisely had Colonel Hope said ? |
| 19 | ‘ But surely we ought to have been able to find some sort of compromise … ’ |
| 20 | ‘ You ought to have been frightened . |