Example sentences of "[was/were] a [adv] [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | What this suggests is that if there ever were a completely stable community which was totally insulated from the outside world , there would be stable differentiation within it — and gender-difference might often be one aspect of this . |
| 2 | Whaddon YMCA were a completely unknown quantity . |
| 3 | Secondly , though it is true that most farmers we interviewed reserved special contempt for the MAFF scientists from Whitehall because they understood little about marginal hill farming , and worse did not appear to think they needed to know , local MAFF officials ( not scientists ) in the Carlisle Divisional Office were a completely different case . |
| 4 | WHEN WE first got to New York , the reporters met the boat and because they printed our names in the papers the Stage Door Johnnies started pestering us ; they were a completely different sort from the European ones . |
| 5 | In the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian war and the unification of Germany Smith had already calculated that British industry , and with it the country 's future , would be jeopardized unless there were a completely different and far more positive official approach to both technical and art education . |
| 6 | Albini thinks of Big Black and says , ‘ We were a pretty good live band ’ . |
| 7 | Dorcas had to admit that the Signs were a pretty good idea , though . |
| 8 | Unfortunately the kings of Israel were a pretty disappointing lot , and most of them showed little sign of the presence of the Lord the Spirit in their lives and reigns . |
| 9 | The Santuario was looked after by Dominican monks , and they were a pretty shrewd lot when it came to business . |
| 10 | We were a pretty united and single-minded committee until the Admiral fouled things up . |
| 11 | ‘ You were a pretty unforgettable sight — ’ |
| 12 | He had no track record himself in combat and the men he was to lead in battle were a pretty tough crowd , all of them individualists and likely to be highly critical of any officer who did not come up to their own standards . |
| 13 | These are the things that they 're having to pay for it with , and the reason being , is the Social Services in this county were a diabolically low level , and people were definitely suffering from it . |
| 14 | These first Mark IIs to reach Malta were a most welcome reinforcement , arriving at a time when Axis operations had fallen off , pending the German invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece . |
| 15 | They really were a most peculiar bunch . |
| 16 | One way and another , the problems of the British economy , with unpleasant side-effects for individuals such as the ‘ austerity ’ of 1948–9 , the ‘ pay pause ’ of 1961 , the deflation after the 1976 IMF crisis , or the rise in personal indebtedness after 1986 , were a persistently gloomy theme after 1945 . |
| 17 | It is inexcusable to talk to a mature adult as if he or she were a rather dull child . ’ |
| 18 | Henry had absolutely no consistent views about anything that did not directly concern him ; in his opinion , such views were a rather revolting luxury . |
| 19 | As far as Wycliffe could see , the books were a rather austere collection of poetry , classical fiction , and biography . |
| 20 | He knew that the routine and itinerary of the Chairman were a closely guarded secret . |
| 21 | It must be said , too , that the early and middle 1980s , at least as compared to the late 1980s and the early 1990s , were a remarkably placid time , without the edge brought to American cultural and artistic life by demands for sexual and gender liberation and by AIDS-induced desperation . |
| 22 | At their disposal were a ludicrously inadequate army and an administrative machine so primitive that one observer in the early eighteenth century alleged that the tiny Italian city-state of Lucca possessed a larger civil service than they . |
| 23 | Sometimes they were a little lifeless , not with lethargy or simple weariness ( they could be that , but then his whole body-language ‘ drooped ’ accordingly ) , but with a specific withdrawn quality which , when taken with a certain passivity of the face , can be hard and unyielding : betokening a concern — even a resentment — in being examined in that particular way . |
| 24 | The details of it all were a little mundane to him and he did not necessarily want to be implicated in them . |
| 25 | Initially , we were a little uncertain as to the type of adverts to seek and in both your absences I checked with Gerry Senior who was very helpful in advising that we would be looking for the kind of events that might be held in the Centre and not adverts relating to , for example , recruitment . |
| 26 | We did find time for some work at Orkney which even produced a few seizures , but we were a little early for the oil traffic which was only just beginning to affect the island . |
| 27 | The coastal villages were a little bigger , containing many landless peasants , represented by numerous 20s. assessments , who lived by grazing stock on the common saltmarshes . |
| 28 | They were a little bigger than this the ones they had shunting here . |
| 29 | His esses were a little lax . |
| 30 | When Jean Hay had become Jean Keith , it was only natural that she assumed head girl status , so for a time , things were a little uncomfortable . |