Hello lobs,

Where possible, it’s generally better to use an existing module than to re-invent the wheel. In this case, there are modules on such as Text::Sentence that do most of the work for you:

use strict;
use warnings;
use Text::Sentence qw( split_sentences );

my $sent      = 'George Washington';
my $doc       = do { local $/; <DATA>; };
my @sentences = split_sentences($doc);

for (@sentences)
{
    if (/^'?$sent'?\s+(?:is|was)/) 
    {
        print "FOUND:\n$_\n";
        last;
    }
}

__DATA__
The quick brown fox jumped over the unfortunate dog.
'George Washington' was the first President of the United States, the 
+Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolu
+tionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He
+ presided over the convention that drafted the current United States 
+Constitution and during his lifetime was called the "father of his co
+untry".
Widely admired for his strong leadership qualities, Washington was una
+nimously elected president in the first two national elections. He ov
+ersaw the creation of a strong, well-financed national government tha
+t maintained neutrality in the French Revolutionary Wars, suppressed 
+the Whiskey Rebellion, and won acceptance among Americans of all type
+s.[5] Washington's incumbency established many precedents, still in u
+se today, such as the cabinet system, the inaugural address, and the 
+title Mr. President.[6][7] His retirement from office after two terms
+ established a tradition that lasted until 1940, when Franklin Delano
+ Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term. The 22nd Amendment (1951)
+ now limits the president to two elected terms.
[download]

Output:

14:11 >perl 1601_SoPW.pl
FOUND:
'George Washington' was the first President of the United States, the 
+Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolu
+tionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.

14:11 >
[download]

Hope that helps,

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