Example sentences of "be [that] [pron] was [verb] " in BNC.

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1 ‘ I have n't had the pathologist 's report but the indications are that he was strangled after being stunned by a blow to the head . ’
2 Or it may simply have been that he was hiding : that his confused sexuality could at any time have brought him down .
3 During the first government of Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson , one of whose election slogans had been that he was going to introduce a white hot technological revolution , AEA was empowered by act of Parliament to undertaken R&D on non-nuclear topics .
4 Ward 's excuse for talking in Spanish had been that he was accustoming himself to using it freely .
5 In April , I did point out that if English Heritage ( the body responsible for the preservation of England 's built heritage ) were transferred to the new Department of National Heritage ( which is now the case ) , very careful consideration would need to be given to how planning is coped with , because one of the strengths of English Heritage had been that it was placed within the Department of the Environment where government planning takes place .
6 The two are entirely compatible if it is remembered that one of the popular theories of the nature of the state itself has always been that it was founded on a contract between the individual members of a society .
7 ( Indeed , is Christianity true : could it possibly be that one was raised from the dead ? )
8 Could it possibly be that she was missing something ?
9 There were no words in the experience , but he became aware of the fact that he was keeping something at bay ; or another way of looking at it would be that he was wearing some rigid outer clothing , like corsets or a suit of armour .
10 It might be that he was speaking the truth , but before she could answer footsteps sounded along the passage , and they both faced the door as his mother came reluctantly in .
11 It may be that he was influenced in his thinking yet again by the British , whose officer class cultivated the honourable wound , and whose subalterns had lately contributed in altogether disproportionate numbers to the casualties suffered by the British army in France .
12 Henry Calverley won the arrow at the first meeting at Scorton , but it was not held there again until 1754 , so it may be that he was keeping this promise .
13 I wondered how it could be that I was going to marry Syl .
14 It is not at all unlikely that at the conquest , Mehmed II appointed someone mufti in the newly conquered city ; and since the sources seem not to mention the appointment of anyone else to the post , it may possibly be that it was made an for Hizir Bey .
15 It may even be that it was done to make possible the appointment of this particular scholar , a native of Bosnasarayi who had taught to the level .
16 One reason for this may be that it was overtaken — and , perhaps , undermined — by political developments .
17 Asik Celebi says no more about Molla Fenari 's fate , but it may well be that it was alter this experience that Molla Fenari went to Karaman .
18 I mean the rumours were that he was gon na go to Cheam , he was supposed to be Saturdays for Cheam .
19 The disadvantages of the Article were that it was perceived as dealing with ‘ representational ’ issues that were out of place in the Convention , that it undercut the position of non-liability of member States for treaties concluded by organisations , and that it placed excessive emphasis on the exceptional situation of the European Communities .
20 Suggestions were that it was to rendezvous with another English force crossing into the Middle March ; or to meet up with Dunbar on the East March and convince him to join Balliol actively .
21 When the news did become public , colleagues who had avoided speaking to me when the going got tough reappeared and said how sorry they were that I was leaving .
22 But he seemed to think because you 'd had your stroke almost a year ago that I should be over it ; his exact words were that I was looking for sympathy .
23 His voice was muffled by something — could it be that he was smoking a cigar even whilst disembodied ?
24 The fact is that nothing was done about the matter , and the goats were released from farm isolation by the ministry with subsequent disastrous results for me and for others .
25 The first we hear about his steam engines is that one was erected near Dudley Castle in the Black Country area of the Midlands in 1712 .
26 Aunt Ilsa was in the library ; she had a heavy cold at the time and I am tempted to say we discovered her poring over a map , but the inelegant truth is that she was searching the shelves for a misplaced book when we entered .
27 Near the chancel arch is a niche dedicated to St Sitha — her only claim to fame , according to local tradition , is that she was martyred , her head was cut off ‘ and she picked it up and ran three miles to the nearby ( sic ! ) church to warn the other Christians . ’
28 You see , what I did n't know , is that she was feeling terribly nervous as well , just as I was .
29 Clearly Helen has looked for ‘ explanations ’ to help her deal with such a painful experience , and the one she seems to have come up with is that she was picked on for the way she looks .
30 The more likely explanation is that she was pressurising him to leave your daughter to marry her .
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