Example sentences of "[pron] had be [adj] [noun] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | I read throughout the night , glancing at the bed from where , earlier the same day , I had been certain Francis was watching me . |
| 2 | I had been four years at an evangelical theological college but no one had ever put it like that to me . |
| 3 | Before I had been lifeless jumble of miscellaneous body parts but now I was Frankenstein 's monster , shocked by lust into coherence and action . |
| 4 | Because in my last five years before [ becoming Prime Minister ] I had been Foreign Secretary [ and ] , therefore , away a lot . |
| 5 | All I had were some trout in the freezer by courtesy of the millpond . |
| 6 | The only time I had was five hours on the Sunday beforehand , and that was supposed to be a rest day . ’ |
| 7 | The last break I had was five months ago . |
| 8 | Looked as it someone had been practising three-point turns on its chest . ’ |
| 9 | The pure white drifts of snow against the door of the hut convinced me that nobody had been that way recently . |
| 10 | What she did was to go through her cupboards , where she discovered a dress which had once belonged to Clara 's cousin , and which had been enclosed years before in a charitable parcel of hands-on . |
| 11 | There was something about old Eddy 's appearance which had been worrying Dyson subconsciously for some minutes , and he suddenly realized what it was . |
| 12 | That very morning , it appeared , they had lost a couple of turns — one of which had been two sisters : a singing and dancing act . |
| 13 | One afternoon we had been taken for a walk up to the top of the mountain behind the camp , which had been good exercise ; from the top I had been able to see the sea . |
| 14 | Learning from their heavy losses , the Soviets abandoned offensives using convoys of tanks , which had been easy targets , and adopted more flexible methods , relying particularly on helicopter raids . |
| 15 | Tax and bill collectors faced more practical confusion , not only with a ‘ re-timed ’ calendar but because it had also been decided to start the legal year on January 1 instead of March 25 , which had been New Year 's Day since the twelfth century . |
| 16 | Largely because the sport had focused almost entirely on the racing craft used on inland waters , the Firths of Clyde , Forth and Tay , which had been strong centres once , had all but died away : with Royal West boating mainly in Glasgow and the new Dundee University on the Tay near Perth . |
| 17 | In June 1990 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ( FDIC ) , a leading government claimant , had established a special task force to investigate whether Drexel had contributed to the failure of any of the savings and loans institutions ( " thrifts " ) which had been big customers of the bank . |
| 18 | Even as she said it she recalled the growing doubts and disgust which had been another spur driving her to accept Clive 's invitation . |
| 19 | The plate from which he had eaten his hamburgers and frozen green beans , which had been last night 's supper , still unrinsed in the sink ; the splatter of grease marks above the ancient gas stove ; the viscous mess of grime gumming the narrow gap between stove and cupboard ; the soiled and smelly teacloth hanging from its hook at the side of the sink ; last year 's calendar askew on its nail ; the two open shelves jammed with a conglomeration of half-used cereal packets , jars of stale jam , cracked mugs , packets of detergent ; the cheap , unstable table with its two chairs , their backs grubby from numerous clutching hands ; the linoleum curving at the wall where it had become unstuck ; the general air of discomfort , uncaring , negligence , dirt . |
| 20 | The result — a rather higher rate of completion of power stations and higher spending four or five years later in the mid-1950s — was welcomed by the Electricity Division , but it annoyed the Treasury and caused political embarrassment for the Government ( which had been promising restraint in the public sector ) . |
| 21 | She had been six years old then and she had thought the fireworks the most beautiful sight in the world . |
| 22 | She did n't want to understand him , but heated recognition rippled through her as she stared at his mouth , as unwillingly fascinated by its sensual curve as she had been six years ago , when all her breathlessly adored heroes had suddenly become prosaic and petty with the advent of the man from Hong Kong . |
| 23 | Deirdre joined the literature committee in 1985 after the closure of Craiglockhart College of Education , where she had been principal lecturer in English , and so began a second career . |
| 24 | Only then did she fully realise that if she had been five minutes later the watchers keeping a lookout for a stray boy might , tomorrow , have been hauling ashore the sodden body of Gus Hambro . |
| 25 | This time she announced it was n't Mrs Brown 's four calling birds three French hens two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree she had been five gold rings . |
| 26 | What had Julius seen in the nineteen-year-old girl she had been five years ago that had made him want to grab her and marry her , without even really knowing her ? |
| 27 | Lucy was weeping as she had been that afternoon . |
| 28 | Later , much later , Kelly was to reflect on how lucky she had been that day . |
| 29 | when she had been all hugs and trust for her father . |
| 30 | It was barely five a.m. and dawn was just breaking , but she was wide awake , as she had been all night long . |