Use of 'At the time"

[Tom]

Hi

Could you please use "at the time" in a sentence or two? Is the expression common both in spoken and written English?

Tom

[Yankee]

Hi Tom

Here are some samples from the BNC:

1. But little of this was clearly known at the time, and so some observers concluded that Paul VI secretly connived with the minority.

2. At the time it was widely forecast that if the Lords' experiment was a success the Commons would be forced to follow suit.

3. Miyazawa, at the time of his appointment, had expressed the view that Japan's perennial trade surplus was a" fundamentally insoluble problem", caused by unstoppable world demand for superior Japanese products.

4. All strictures were dilated at the time of diagnosis (and before pH monitoring when found at presentation).

5. He would verbalize his sadnesses, throw his arms about as he told elaborate stories concerning people who had upset him at the time, even when going into sad tales about people who were important to him.

Amy