Example sentences of "could [adv] have [verb] " in BNC.
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| 1 | Second , the axial spin rate of the Earth 4600 Ma ago can be estimated using the principle of conservation of angular momentum by giving the Earth all the present angular momentum of the Moon plus the orbital angular momentum of the Earth and the Moon around their centre of mass : the Earth spins nowhere near fast enough to have spun off lunar material and no very plausible means have been suggested whereby the Earth-Moon system could since have lost the necessarily copious amount of angular momentum . |
| 2 | ‘ Indeed , ’ says Jim Whiston , quality manager for C&P , ‘ without the correct accreditations , ICI could eventually have lost the bulk of its engineering plastics business . |
| 3 | The Corporate Finance Department of the licensed dealer pushing the stock , could arguably have alerted the dealing room earlier but it never did . |
| 4 | Can we imagine , for instance , that rulers could effectively have articulated their image through Christ , had there been no religious feeling in society as a whole to which appeal could be made , when they projected the Christ-image of rule ? |
| 5 | With infinite delicacy forget-me-nots and rosebuds , croci and oak leaves are chiselled out of native lime ( grown in the grounds of the palace itself ) and slotted into ancient floral compositions which , but for a discarded cigarette in the grace and favour flats above , could perhaps have remained undisturbed for the next 300 years . |
| 6 | He could perhaps have submitted himself to some army medical board , but whether they would have enthused over the application of a 48-year-old epileptic syphilitic with no military experience except that acquired while shooting wild-life in the desert |
| 7 | With enough genetic mutations at hand , the behaviour could perhaps have evolved independently in each species . |
| 8 | There are , of course , major problems in evaluating programmes , as we have already discussed , but one could perhaps have expected more concern about the amount of information transmitted by each method and about how each works in the classroom . |
| 9 | He could perhaps have changed something . ’ |
| 10 | Nothing could better have driven her fears for Benedict temporarily from her mind . |
| 11 | What could so have soured the Hartlepool atmosphere ? |
| 12 | Definitely , yes , and you , you and Dave could have come up and er Carla , perhaps not Lee , but , you know , he may have wanted to go off somewhere else , erm , we could all have bunked down on what spare space there was and I was going to do a very primitive almost medieval , middle ages sort of Christmas |
| 13 | Remember the Philippine jailer , he cried out there to the apostle Paul who was , er in jail there with Silas they , they 'd been that tremendous earthquake , and they were released , all their fetters was was were broken , and the prisoners were all , could all have escaped ! |
| 14 | They could only have believed that tanks had eternal lives . |
| 15 | I could only have believed what I have seen . |
| 16 | However large and good his bought figures may have been , they could only have detracted from his landscapes . |
| 17 | What had been going on in her cabin could only have led to one thing , and that was something that must never happen again . |
| 18 | My perfect house , the one I am condemned to search for just as the womaniser in 10 is condemned to search for his impossible mate , could only have existed in some fiction I had read — or in a past life . |
| 19 | He could only have satisfied the expectations Labour has raised in Scotland and Wales by putting Labour 's ability to win future British elections at risk . |
| 20 | At best it seems , a national strike would have developed into a bitter war of attrition which the unions , with their meagre resources , could only have lost . |
| 21 | In the opening récit the oboes could only have played on the three-part ritournelle , presumably two treble oboes and a bassoon , as in the numerous wind trios in Lully 's later works . |
| 22 | This sense of personal identity depends essentially on memory , but a sense of the past could only have arisen when man consciously reflected on his memories . |
| 23 | The concept of precious as distinct from merely useful substances could only have arisen in societies enriched by aesthetic sensibilities and sufficiently aware of persons to wish to symbolize relations between them as individuals and as enactors of social roles . |
| 24 | Sellers , dressed in brilliant colours , outshone the purchasers , and , instead of welcoming them , either ignored them or were so rude that they could only have hoped to drive them away . |
| 25 | If occasionally he still dreamed of Madeleine , of holding her in his arms , kissing her , he had reconciled himself to the belief that marriage between them could only have ended in disaster . |
| 26 | The episode could only have increased his distrust of authority and his disdain for the bourgeois . |
| 27 | He could only have shored up Labour 's establishment in Scotland and Wales by fragmenting its UK establishment , and betraying the north of England component . |
| 28 | It is inconceivable that Eliza would have married Wickham , just as Lucy could only have married George . |
| 29 | I noticed he was carrying something wrapped in a cloth and could only have used one hand for balance . |
| 30 | These cases lie on the borderline between construction and interpretation of an established disposition : in them the trust is resurrected in a form which satisfies the testator 's aims , where a civil-law disposition could only have failed . |