Example sentences of "were [verb] [prep] [adj] " in BNC.
Next page| No | Sentence |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bundles of papers and box files were stacked on termite-proof metal shelves but their labels had faded . |
| 2 | Two stone steps and a low wide door in the far wall led up to a smaller kitchen , and beyond that was the gloomy pantry where trussed birds and enormous rounds of butter and cheese were stacked on cold stone slabs . |
| 3 | The cupboards were stacked with discarded baby clothing , receipts for adverts in London and suburban newspapers , anxious letters and telegrams from worried mothers , in fact virtually everything to give the thankful Detective Inspector a watertight case . |
| 4 | Persian books were stacked in disordered piles ; in the corner glistened a big brass samovar incised with Islamic decoration . |
| 5 | He sought refuge in a hotel ballroom with his cast and crew as roofs were ripped off nearby buildings and power lines blew down . |
| 6 | The years of his longest sentence , from 1979 to 1983 ( incurred for setting up , in admiring imitation of the Polish KOR , a Czech Committee to Defend the Unjustly Prosecuted ) were punctuated by other , sometimes painfully absurd episodes : for example the day the Interior Ministry 's men relented sufficiently to allow him to attend his father 's funeral , and then inadvertently let him be surrounded by a tight scrum of friends who brought him up to date with all the latest political news . |
| 7 | Clare had led Carolyn along endless humming corridors , whose walls were punctuated by closed doors . |
| 8 | It is much more likely that the periods we call constant saw some small changes and the intervening periods , although generally of more rapid fall , were punctuated by minor stillstands . |
| 9 | Those who had moved were traced through various means including the local Electoral Register , Leicestershire Family Health Services Authority , the local Registrar of Births and Deaths , and the NHS Central Register at Southport in Lancashire . |
| 10 | Later , shoe-shapes were traced on black card . |
| 11 | Her brother Mark broke the news after they were traced by Canadian police . |
| 12 | Bull and bear baiting have gone , but we are left with remnants of former use in such breeds as bulldogs , whose exaggerated lower jaws were developed through selective breeding , to hang onto the muzzles of bulls . |
| 13 | As more and more uses were found for computers in business and commerce , as well as in science and engineering , even easier languages were developed for lay use . |
| 14 | For an answer we will need to look elsewhere : at the theories of conversational principles and speech acts , ideas which , as their names suggest , were developed with spoken language in mind , but are as applicable to written discourse as to spoken . |
| 15 | The plates were developed with high performance thin layer chromatography and read with a scanner densitometer ( Shimadzu CS 920 ) . |
| 16 | Hospital services were developed without general practitioners being asked whether they were required and often at the expense of the more routine but essential treatment our patients required . |
| 17 | But the breed 's origins are uncertain and the theories are numerous — that they are almost directly descended from the wild aurochs , for example ( the claim of many a breed ! ) or are at least of Bos primigenius stock like the Podolians of the steppes , or are descended from large , long-horned continental cattle imported several centuries ago ( some say by the Romans ) , or were imported 3,000–4,000 years ago , or came from Ireland where they were an ancient indigenous type , or were developed from Dutch and old English breeds before the eighteenth century , or must have Norse origins because of their coat colour and pattern . |
| 18 | As the antihistamines were developed from early attempts to find adrenaline blockers , this was not entirely surprising . |
| 19 | But we must not forget the great flysch troughs which were developed in Alpine Europe through much of Cretaceous time and which in many cases continued on into the Tertiary . |
| 20 | So various calendars were developed in different parts of the world . |
| 21 | Many of the community-based projects were developed by libertarian socialists , formed politically in the ‘ alternative ’ social movements of the 1960s and 1970s , who rejected hierarchical and bureaucratic forms of organisation and who celebrated cultural rather than economic struggle . |
| 22 | In a pattern of development which took the form of a circus containing a garden at the centre , with roads radiating towards the cardinal points , the land was divided into small plots which were developed by various builders between 1843 and 1850 . |
| 23 | Patterns like the ‘ fix ’ and the ‘ fiddle ’ were developed by skilled workers , in piecework systems where considerable discretion was retained on the shopfloor . |
| 24 | The trees were developed by Spanish engineer Antonio Ibanez , who claims to have interested an Italian multinational plus the French and more than one Arab government in his invention . |
| 25 | Incidentally , it is a well-documented fact that perfumers ( who , of course , were pervaded by essential oils ) were often immune to the plague . |
| 26 | The white walls were repainted in pastel shades , the sitting room became pale primrose yellow while the bathroom was bright with red cherries . |
| 27 | I watched the crew of a grubby Polish reefer vessel : they were taking pictures of each other against the background of the Gatun Locks ; three hours later , they were gazing with rapt attention at the passing majesty of Culebra ; their cameras were out again for the Pedro Miguel , for the distant flags of the American bases , for the Miraflores Locks , and for the immense red-white-and-blue bandera of the Panama Republic that waved lazily from the summit of Mount Ancon , over the old wooden houses of Panama City . |
| 28 | With the resurgence of the neo-classical architectural style in Victorian times most imposing buildings were erected with great attention to Greco-Roman columns and low , wide vaulted roofs . |
| 29 | Three methods were being tried : A benign substance called Hot Foot Gel painted on the top of transformers and similar equipment to produce a ‘ sinking ’ feeling for the Hoodies when they try to land ; Plastic strips with irregular plastic spikes fixed to the top of equipment to discourage the birds from landing in the first place ; Non-working poles incorporating ‘ alternative nesting pans ’ were erected at selected sites to encourage the crows to use them instead . |
| 30 | Wooden platforms or stages were erected at different levels , so that men working on the various portions of the vehicle were facilitated in their task . |