Example sentences of "it was [verb] to [be] " in BNC.

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1 Female choice has only properly been tested for in the case of one such character , the long tail of a species of widow bird , and it was confirmed to be operating .
2 We recognise that logically this demands a transfer of resources and effort from the former to the latter , that in the words I have so often quoted , some social services are ‘ excessive ’ and others ‘ inadequate ’ — that it was bound to be so and that it is so .
3 She just knew , she knew with absolute certainty , that in this vast , noisy , busy city , something would happen to her , and it was bound to be something good .
4 John Strachey , a leading Left Book Club and Communist intellectual , wrote to his schoolfriend Robert Boothby — now a left-wing Tory MP — reassuring him that the left would support a pact with the Tory dissidents , even if the Communist Party was excluded ( which it was bound to be ) .
5 When taken with the latitude allowed by the instruction to ‘ operate in the public interest ’ , it is easy to see that , with such imprecise targets , it was bound to be extremely difficult to assess the performance of nationalised industries .
6 However , although the dramatic progress , in terms of productivity , made by Jaguar since privatisation is acknowledged , critics claim that it was bound to be a takeover candidate before too long , as it was a small player in a market which was becoming increasingly concentrated .
7 Until now my only objection to living in a water-mill had been a conviction that it was bound to be dark , water-mills having a habit of being in valleys , Nigel explained , but it was wonderfully light up there , with two large , deep-set windows .
8 Oh yes anything that happened down the glen or way was heard that from the pack man so it was bound to be true .
9 It was bound to be one of the young reporters .
10 In first time and a better fish , we even joked it was bound to be another twenty !
11 Indeed he was probably uncertain himself as to what the end-point would be , except that it was bound to be a less rigid and less bipolar system than the old one ; and he assumed that a more flexible multipolar system would not only be more advantageous to France but would be safer and more equitable for all states .
12 It was bound to be
13 I remember him telling one man that had been late three times in fifteen years that it was getting to be a habit : ‘ You 'd better look for your previous employment . ’
14 It was getting to be more than just a bad habit ; it was beginning to become an established part of his personality .
15 It was getting to be a sore point .
16 It was getting to be as big as a cathedral .
17 Whatever the book 's faults might be , it was seen to be an original contribution of power , and that a new force in Christian thinking had appeared among the Churches in England .
18 This was a crucial consideration , especially for the unskilled , because it was seen to be their only asset .
19 On opening it was seen to be empty .
20 In clarifying our confidence in another 's consciousness , human or non-human , it was seen to be an error of Griffin 's to pose the problem in terms of putting ourselves into another 's ‘ skin' or to experience their ‘ subjective feelings ’ ( 1984 : 1 , above ) .
21 Before this , the judges themselves , and especially the Master of the Rolls , whose responsibility it was seen to be , considered and made the necessary recommendations to the Department on the staffing and other administrative arrangements of the courts .
22 Collectively , however , the service was not well regarded in the schools since it was seen to be enact many of the tendencies referred to earlier .
23 It was seen to be not an excrescence on the body politic , having no bearing upon its general health , but an organic disease … a running sore that affected the entire fabric of society , a morass exhaling a miasma that poisoned the healthy elements of industry .
24 Partly because of this distinction in favour of processions at common law , it was seen to be necessary for the police to be given statutory powers to control potentially disruptive processions ( but not meetings ) in the Public Order Act 1936 .
25 And yet this field was like every other since the archers had become the terrible force they were ; their part was done first , but nonetheless at the end it was seen to be the determining part .
26 He said he saw no sign of a white stick until after the accident when it was seen to be folded up .
27 Added to this was an acceptance of liberal Victorian culture to such a degree that it was assumed to be as eternal as the gospel itself .
28 Until recently it was assumed to be a flattened axisymmetric spheroid ( that is , one which is round in the plane of the Galaxy ) .
29 The investigator also plans to follow up a finding that having perfected the distinction between meaning and message , children may come to view reality in a new way : incoming information can be construed as offering clues about reality , whereas before it was assumed to be reality .
30 John Smith 's shadow budget was not the triumph it was touted to be .
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