Example sentences of "they [was/were] [verb] to [be] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
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| 1 | The mystery plays were originally known as the Corpus Christi Play ; the use of the singular ‘ play ’ indicated they were intended to be seen as a whole , while Corpus Christi refers to the holy day on which they were performed . |
| 2 | Although I believe that hysteria , as classically defined , can provide only a part of the answer to the problem of anorexia nervosa , it is a starting-point and , in the light of Szasz 's observation that ‘ hysterical conversion is best regarded as a process of translation , ’ I propose to translate the history of my own symptoms back into the language in which they were intended to be expressed . |
| 3 | When made with the addition of stock they Jose all character and cease to be what they were intended to be . |
| 4 | However they were said to be ‘ furious ’ that the Scottish Office , the local community health specialist and the water suppliers had reassured people that there was no risk to health . |
| 5 | Some political activists concluded from this that what was needed was to ‘ empower the poor ’ , encourage their civic and political participation as a way to redress the balance , give them the strength to organize in such a way as to make effective claims on society , to receive those citizen 's rights to which they were said to be entitled . |
| 6 | They were said to be fearless swordsmen and able to shoot a man between the eyes at a hundred paces . |
| 7 | They were said to be ‘ OK but distressed and exhausted ’ . |
| 8 | Not only were the garotters thought to be visiting hot-blooded Neapolitan outrage upon English soil , but on other occasions they were said to be ‘ like the sanguinary fanatics of the French Revolution ’ as well as resembling the ‘ Indian ‘ thuggee' ’ ’ . |
| 9 | When such ‘ dispositive ’ or ‘ objective ’ regimes were accepted as being in the general public interest they were said to be binding erga omnes . |
| 10 | Compared to glassfibre boats they were said to be heavy , slow , unmanoeuvrable and , because they bent rather than broke , dangerous . |
| 11 | They were said to be shaped like squid or octopuses , with many arms that could pluck men from ships , and even drag whole boats to the bottom of the sea . |
| 12 | They were said to be behind the acts of violence against the opposition parties , against the minorities , and against peaceful demonstrators . |
| 13 | They were said to be a happy and adoring family . |
| 14 | They were said to be a happy and adoring family . |
| 15 | For a married couple they were reckoned to be between 50 and 60 per cent of post-tax earnings in France , Germany and the United States , about one-third in Britain and Italy , and probably barely one-fifth in Japan . |
| 16 | after that , and then this , the fans must have wondered if they were destined to be watching a nil-nil draw . |
| 17 | The Japanese are reluctant , partly because they were asked to be contributors after the machine had been designed , rather than to be partners for the whole project . |
| 18 | Though his critics maintain they were trying to be constructive and wanted him to stay , Sutton was convinced that the criticism had been organized in advance as a warning that if he did not go , as Pilger was demanding , they would make life hell for him . |
| 19 | They were trying to be advisers and salesmen at once . |
| 20 | Wanting to remain a child becomes unfeasible even to the most stupid old beard at the age of about 35 ; they eventually give up and accept they were born to be schoolteachers . |
| 21 | They were born to be bloody tragic . ’ |
| 22 | This period around 1967 was the time of the big change-over in the airline business from piston engines to jets , so it was clear that the programme I had selfishly pursued for my own good was in fact a proper course to follow for all Ops inspectors if they were to continue to be able to do their work effectively . |
| 23 | The New York Times of Nov. 19 reported that the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps had recently issued a new ruling requiring all its graduates to sign an affidavit saying that they were liable to be discharged and forced to pay back their scholarship if they were discovered to be homosexual . |
| 24 | When black youth did appear it was often because they were seen to be a problem . |
| 25 | Boccara/Boucherit of France had the next fastest time but they were seen to be wash hanging , not for the first time at this level , and a protest was upheld , posing the question why the umpires Riccardo Guala and Glyde Brytt had given white flags . |
| 26 | They might get at least some credit if they were seen to be laying better long-term foundations for the economy . |
| 27 | They were seen to be working in the same direction and although it has not yet been possible to gauge the extent to which they help in the task of managing new education , their contribution to quality assurance should , by tradition , be valuable . |
| 28 | Yet the political authority was to an extent dependent on the company 's sources of information , however suspect or inadequate they were seen to be ; according to one civil servant interviewed , the PSO requirement was ‘ basically calculated by taking on trust the figures which RENFE gave ’ . |
| 29 | The Home Office sent a detective to report on the movements of ‘ the French people ’ — they were assumed to be foreign as they did not have a Somerset accent . |
| 30 | Now they were assumed to be — well , gay , but not in the sense he acknowledged . |