Example sentences of "it had been a [noun sg] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The Colony , which had its legal status removed in February [ see p. 38002 ] , was still operating and former inmates had reported that it had been a centre for child sexual abuse and slave labour , and a torture centre for Pinochet 's DINA secret police following the 1973 military coup . |
| 2 | Every room in the house contained some form of Bible and I took up a large ancient looking one and opened it as if it had been a door into a cave . |
| 3 | Everything had been bad , but at least it had been a kind of understandable , nome-sized badness . |
| 4 | It had been a kind of reflex action . |
| 5 | She was glad to escape ; it had been a working lunch , set up to discuss a new second-year course on the influence of gender on literary style , and the syllabus had provoked considerable opposition from two of her older male colleagues . |
| 6 | It would be equally grave if it had been a burglary charge but he was facing one of the most serious allegations you could make . |
| 7 | I think if it had been a ghost , if the girl had been transparent and headless , I might have been less astonished . |
| 8 | It had been a race to remember . |
| 9 | It had been a part of her intention in coming here to banish those shades : already it seemed they were darkening her mind as surely as they still lowered across her father 's . |
| 10 | To take the Liberals first , it had been a commonplace of political analysis over previous years to regard the Liberal vote as largely a product of temporary disillusion with the Tories following on periods of Tory government , as a protest vote . |
| 11 | Perhaps it had been a decision taken by a General of KGB in the Lubyanka , perhaps the papers had gone to the Politburo or even to the President , but the matter had not been pushed . |
| 12 | No one had wanted to believe that Paula 's beauty went right through her more than Sally did for she was a shining golden idol as well as a sister and it had been a shock to Sally when she had at last been forced to concede , in private at least , that the other girls might have been right in the accusations they made . |
| 13 | It had been a shock to discover that for the first five years they went to homes in the country where women were paid to nurse them , and it seemed to put a stop to any hope of seeing Angel again . |
| 14 | He had assumed they would all enter medicine as he had , so it had been a shock when Jack had chosen law . |
| 15 | When , on demobilisation , Freddie returned to Scotland , expecting to step into the role of country squire or glorified estate manager — despite the fact that he knew nothing about agriculture — it had been a shock to find himself coldly received by his in-laws and his wife , who informed him that she definitely intended to start divorce proceedings . |
| 16 | At first it had been a shock and had made his heart beat faster . |
| 17 | She accepted that it had been a shock to me , and she understood that I was feeling upset . ’ |
| 18 | He rammed in the pitch , keeping his balance in the tossing pirogue , as only he could , he with his funambulist 's antennae , who might have scaled the ship on a free-floating ladder if it had been a parade , a feast , a time of play and rejoicing . |
| 19 | It seemed to adapt itself to her and , in any case , she would not have noticed if it had been a giraffe . |
| 20 | It had been a chance perhaps worth taking to violate Belgian neutrality , but this had brought Great Britain , with her Empire and her naval supremacy into the War , with the inevitable result that Germany would , by blockade , eventually be brought to starvation . |
| 21 | Obviously it had been a fight , but since Fairbrother was a newcomer to the school , aggressive and ever ready to defend himself with insults , no particular motive was assigned to either party . |
| 22 | It had been a plea . |
| 23 | One may however ask whether those in the action sample who said that the strain was less than it had been a year ago attributed this to the effects of the Home Support Project . |
| 24 | It had been a year since the old Port Road to Stranraer line had closed and the London to Stranraer trains were diverted via Ayr and Girvan . |
| 25 | It had been a baptism by fire , but she had come through . |
| 26 | It had been a way of escaping from the poverty into which her family had sunk , and she knew that by working hard for long , tiring hours and helping Fred turn the mediocre business into one that was thriving and profitable she would one day be able to help her parents and her brother too . |
| 27 | It had been a day of rare pleasure for Harry , climaxed by lunch with Heather at the villa . |
| 28 | It had been a day of many upsets . |
| 29 | The National Audit Act , a private member 's bill sponsored by Mr St John Stevas , provided that the Public Accounts Committee should have a decisive voice in the choice of the Comptroller — previously it had been a government nomination . |
| 30 | Complying with her appeal , Dada abandoned his kedgeree and , sucking his moustache inwards always with him a sign of annoyance he picked up the viburnum , still with its precious burden , opened the bottom sash of a long window , and flung out the double butterfly as viciously as if it had been a slug in the salad . |