Sentence:  The `` Suite of Old Russian Dances '' that opened that inaugural program with the slow and modest entrance of the maidens and built steadily into typical Moiseyev vigor and warmth ; the amusing `` Yurochka '' , in which a hard-to-please young man is given his come-uppance ; the lovely ( and of course vigorous ) `` Polyanka '' or `` The Meadow '' ; the three Moldavian dances entitled `` Zhok '' ; the sweet and funny little dance about potato planting called `` Bul ' ba '' ; and the hilarious picture of social life in an earlier day called `` City Quadrille '' are all just as good as one remembers them to have <WSD>been</WSD> , and they are welcome back . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)