Example sentences of "they happened to [be] [verb] " in BNC.
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| 1 | It was alleged that at first the railway company denied that they had been travelling on the train at all , and it was indeed suggested that the two children were chance victims of the holocaust and they happened to be wandering by the railway at the time . |
| 2 | Malcolm Rifkind , the Defence Secretary , intervened to say the army believed it would be ‘ grossly invidious for the choice of soldiers for redundancy to depend on whether at any given moment they happened to be serving in Northern Ireland , Bosnia , the UK or elsewhere ’ . |
| 3 | The authorities had no option but to suspend the League , replacing it with three regional leagues in which men could play as amateurs , receiving only a token payment plus expenses , wherever they happened to be stationed . |
| 4 | Everything had an improvised , random air about it , as if people had erected new machines just where they happened to be standing at the time , next to the debris of the old . |
| 5 | Although upper class men varied their clothing rather more , according to what they happened to be doing , for formal public appearances they sometimes wore the toga . |
| 6 | This was true , in its way , but that did not prevent great-nephews and great-nieces becoming irritated when Auntie babied them and fussed over their clothing or over whatever they happened to be doing . |
| 7 | Martin Martin notes that on a small rocky island to the south of Skye there is ‘ a great quantity of scurvey-grass , of an extraordinary size , and very thick ; the natives eat it frequently , as well boiled as raw : two of them told me that they happened to be confined there for the space of thirty hours , by a contrary wind ; and being without victuals , fell to eating this scurvey-grass , and finding it of a sweet taste , far different from the land scurvey-grass , they ate a large basketful of it , which did abundantly satisfy their appetites until their return home ’ . |
| 8 | Alison had rung to say that she was coming up to London for an appointment and could they lunch at a restaurant to which they had both occasionally gone when working at Brentwoods , if they happened to be feeling affluent . |