Example sentences of "could [adv] have [be] " in BNC.
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| 1 | Nevertheless the court went on to discuss in some detail what the position would have been if the appeal could properly have been entertained , expressing the opinion that ( i ) ( Silke V.-P. differing ) there was no ground to intervene in the Barclays ( Asia ) case ; and ( ii ) ( all members of the court concurring ) there was no ground to intervene as regards the order in which the cases should be decided . |
| 2 | Fortunately those of my friends who knew me before were only amused by this foolish description and there was no general resentment of my peerage , which could properly have been attributed to many services that I had given to the government — of both colours . |
| 3 | Looking at the carbon dioxide levels , there 's just one indication of where the government could feasibly have been tougher , at least er critics said that , they er could have been tougher . |
| 4 | Although the pins and needles in his legs could perhaps have been from loss of blood . |
| 5 | The ancient streets could perhaps have been left to enforce their own low driving speeds through their narrowness , their cobbled surfaces and their lack of visibility over anything more than a few metres . |
| 6 | In particular , plankton evolution could perhaps have been stimulated by a drastic change in ocean current systems consequent upon Pangaea breakup , but the sea-level rise might have been just as significant . |
| 7 | Technically , such receipts , unlike share certificates , have no value as collateral , though a layman could perhaps have been duped . |
| 8 | There is also a small late building on a totally different alignment ( almost east-west ) which could perhaps have been a small Christian shrine , erected to counteract pagan influence . |
| 9 | On the basis of this , it is submitted that the question of subsidiarity is essentially a political question for the Council , and if the Council decided to act at the Community level it would not be possible to challenge what it did simply on the basis that it could better have been done at the level of the Member States ; rather , it would be necessary to show a manifest error , a misuse of power or a clear passing of the limits of discretion , and it is submitted that the occasions when this might be done will be rare . |
| 10 | As will be seen in Chapter 7 , this itself could only have been due to current Roman catholic social teaching on mixed marriage . |
| 11 | I have no doubt that dedicated woodturners everywhere would scoff at the idea of engineers ' lathes being used for woodturners , but when I think of the various moulds and patterns I have made over the years with comparative ease but which due to their intricacies could only have been made with extreme difficulty on a wood lathe — if at all . |
| 12 | Then , in that second of hushed silence before the screen and fanfare blaze out , there came from the middle of the auditorium a huge and shocked voice ‘ What the fookin''ell are yo ’ doin' ? ' , followed almost at once by two mighty smacks that could only have been someone being hit . |
| 13 | The baby was only a sign and could only have been understood later in the light of the life of the person who was to be the Saviour of the world . |
| 14 | A burst of fire in the street outside , uncomfortably close , could only have been discharged from very near their original position in the gutter . |
| 15 | Zen 's barking background could only have been a big plus the day he found a newborn baby whose entire experience of life was going to be lying abandoned for a few hours by a creek near Plymouth . |
| 16 | He points to a single red blossom that quivers on a nearly invisible thread attached to a garland of synthetic butterflies and rhinestone-dotted flowers — a bizarre piece of headgear so tacky it could only have been custom-made . |
| 17 | It was thanks to them that he learned that the hunt was on for a leak on the Washington embassy wartime staff which could only have been Maclean . |
| 18 | And his young wife accompanied him with a sensitive mastery that could only have been born of love . |
| 19 | The figures are wildly optimistic , and could only have been extrapolated from a short trial of about 10 operations . |
| 20 | The poems which impressed the gentleman could only have been produced by a poet with rings around her eyes . |
| 21 | The women complained that the officer could only have been on the housing list for a few weeks , while they had waited for periods of between eighteen months and four years . |
| 22 | The concept of these ‘ continental ’ Wendy Houses with little canvas porches , plastic see-through windows and PVC-checked curtains could only have been dreamed up by someone who has never been two degrees north of the equator . |
| 23 | Such certification could only have been dreamed up as window dressing to exonerate the Agriculture Departments in circumstances where damage could have occurred . |
| 24 | Our respective manners proved so widely different , that it would have been quite presumptuous in me to do anything but separate from an undertaking upon which I could only have been a clog . ’ |
| 25 | The intact pellets collected from varying distances from the nest , however , could only have been left by the adults . |
| 26 | Bronze moulds for elaborate axes of the late Bronze Age in Britain could only have been used in the lost-wax process . |
| 27 | Such an equilibrium could only have been a temporary one , being based upon the fear of a common enemy , rather than on a positive material joint interest . |
| 28 | ‘ It could only have been one , ’ said the Leader decisively , ‘ probably Hugh is right , it was the boy . ’ |
| 29 | The requirement of establishment imposed by the West German rule could only have been justified by the need to protect policy-holders . |
| 30 | It could only have been relatively cool gases that could initiate accretion processes . |