1.   For the first couple of days this was stirring stuff - until practical difficulties began to take their toll.

2.   Most lenders offer low rates for the first couple of years only to raise them again in the future.

3.   They were the first couple in parliamentary history to sit on a front bench together in either House.

4.   The Beatles wore suits and chatted cheerfully with reporters in that first couple of years.

5.   After the first couple of minutes I thought we were going to be in for a really entertaining game.

6.   Any reason given in the first couple of stanzas.

7.   Despite her mutinous feelings, though, the first couple of hours passed with Leith on tenterhooks each time the phone rang or the door opened.

8.   Think of your first couple of questions about that company.

9.   The Portadown player had to work in the first couple of frames but after that he stepped up a gear and dismissed the English player almost scornfully.

10.   Even in the first couple of lines in the book, we are given an image of a perfect island spoilt by humans and their actions.