1.   After a brief introduction by the chairman, the meeting began.

2.   As soon as the meeting began, however, irreconcilable differences emerged.

3.   I got there early so I had a few minutes to collect my thoughts before the meeting began.

4.   Meetings began to be held all over the West Country in village halls and school gyms to debate the issues.

5.   Six hours before our meeting began, the city was deluged with torrential rain.

6.   The meeting began in a sombre mood.

7.   This meeting is beginning to stray from the point.

8.   There are a couple of points we need to clear up before the meeting begins.

9.   The executive fiddled with a pen as she impatiently waited for the meeting to begin.

10.   And these meetings did not begin with the Silk Road, the transcontinental trade route that history books usually describe as opening in the second century B.C.