Example sentences of "[vb past] [been] [v-ing] [prep] [noun pl] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | Now he was on his third circuit of the Bay : he 'd been ducking under bulldozers for almost an hour . |
| 2 | They would all be returning to town in the autumn to meet some sons of good families in Riba ; she 'd been saving for years , money from the pigeons , money from the cheeses , the almonds , her mother 's money when she died — may she rest in peace and perpetual light shine on her — she 'd hidden it from that villainous landlord who 'd strip everyone of their surplus if he knew how much they 'd hoarded , but they 'd never find out , the folk were far too tight to let anyone know , and he , Davide , must not breathe a word . |
| 3 | ‘ I gather she 'd been looking into drugs a few weeks back and then into child porn . |
| 4 | He 'd been hoping for windows , and a view over the bay or the town . |
| 5 | But it was n't like I 'd imagined — except for the long silences when I 'd been hoping for laughs . |
| 6 | ‘ I 'd been expecting for ages to hear you two were getting engaged . |
| 7 | He 'd been sparing with words : it hurt to talk . |
| 8 | She 'd been drinking with friends . |
| 9 | And if you read the scriptures , you 'll discover those where er he , you know er he was with Paul on one occasion , and er he 'd been eating with Gentiles and er then some Jews came up who believed that eating with er non-Jews even though they were followers of Jesus was wrong . |
| 10 | It was her nail scissors that she 'd been searching for days , lost under the hearthrug and pressing into her hip ; and the cry was also her virginity , small and bewildered and gone . |
| 11 | The rational part of his mind knew this could not be the case , and that it was most likely he 'd been travelling in circles . |
| 12 | He 'd been driving for days , he 'd forgotten how many , and he was tired of the white lines painted down the middle of the highway , he was tired to the centre of his bones . |
| 13 | Gran had been muttering about storms for days and she liked her to stay close at these times . |
| 14 | He scored another victory recently when the Labour Party abolished the unions ' block vote in the leadership elections , something he had been advocating for ages . |
| 15 | Long 's health had been deteriorating for years , but he had kept open his channels of communication ; like Law his influence was based on years of devotion to the interests of the party , and like Law 's that influence had been used to argue the case for coalition . |
| 16 | When Tom told his grandmother he was moving out of her house and confessed — because since the accident he had also stopped lying , could not be bothered with prevarication — that he had been busking at stations , she told him she was horrified , she was disappointed in him . |
| 17 | We had been looking for tasks that were : |
| 18 | The maypole committee , of which Amos was president , had been looking for ways of raising funds for the May weekend and old folks ' treat ( of which more later ) , the most important weekend in the lives of the villagers . |
| 19 | By searching for flashes repeating at exactly the same rate as the radio pulses , they were able to investigate much fainter pulsations than if they had been looking for pulses occurring at an unknown rate . |
| 20 | Borough councillors heard yesterday that 1992 is Car Crime Prevention Year and officers had been looking at ways of getting the message across . |
| 21 | I had been looking through Situations Vacant in the local newspaper : ‘ Secretarial assistance required … |
| 22 | Then , towards the end of January , people noticed that at least one boar was coming right up to the village in its nighttime foraging : there were tracks in the snow and patches of scratched earth where it had been digging for roots . |
| 23 | The government had been thinking about ways for the administration to maintain some degree of control over the colonies since the mid-1650s ; in 1675 Charles set up the first organization to establish any record of continuity , a sign that his possessions overseas were settling down into some sort of discernible order . |
| 24 | The former concept had a crucial historical advantage at the birth of mechanics ; Western thinkers approaching things as materials which stay put until the craftsman or builder reaches for them , would not have started trying to measure how the inert is moved by external forces if they had been thinking in terms of inherently active ch'i . |
| 25 | Ianthe , who had been thinking in terms of daffodils and lemon barley water , had not seen herself being so practical . |
| 26 | They first told police they had been hunting for foxes . |
| 27 | She woke early on the morning of July 29 , 1981 which is not surprising as her room overlooked the Mall where the singing , chattering crowds had been gathering for days . |
| 28 | She had been intending for days to make a start on clearing out the cloakroom ; now was the moment — she would make a preliminary survey , set aside what should be kept , see if there was anything good enough for Oxfam . |
| 29 | For months they had been trying with divets and tackle to hoist the appropriate two-ton stone upright and into its hole . |
| 30 | The ancient Egyptians had been trying for centuries to prevent the export of their sacred felines . |