The phrase "are to be refrained" is not correct in standard English usage.
It is likely intended to convey the idea of something that should be avoided or abstained from, but the construction is awkward.
Example: "Certain behaviors are to be refrained in this setting."
Alternatives: "should be avoided" or "must be refrained from".
If investors are to be willing to trust the professional judgment of auditors in applying principles -- and if the S.E.C. is to be willing to refrain from bringing cases where the judgment appears to be defensible, even though the S.E.C. disagrees with it -- then it becomes more vital than ever to assure that auditors are both independent of their clients and competent to make those decisions.
On Nov. 7th, Richard Butler, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his speech giving the House an account of what he had found in the Treasury and setting forth his first idea on what was to be done, conspicuously refrained from throwing the blame for the yawning emptiness of the cupboard upon the late housekeepers.
And if all of the Bible is to be taken literally, shouldn't Christians refrain from planting multiple kinds of seed in one field or letting women speak in church or charging interest to the poor?
(The lyrics are often as precisely on target, though, nonspoiler that I try to be, I am refraining from quoting them).
"What I'm going to do is refrain from comment regarding what the attorney general could do," said Mr. Gormley, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He continued: "I want to make sure that as everybody is exercising their constitutional rights to be heard, that both sides are refraining from situations that might result in people being hurt".
Be clear that you are refraining from judgement: "I'm not judging; I'm listening.
"Maybe my great ambition, such as it is, is to refrain from engagement with systems that purport to tell me what I'm worth compared to anyone else," she writes.
Short of having a mycologist or mushroom expert on hand to verify that a mushroom collected in the wild is safe, the recommendation is to refrain from eating any wild mushrooms.
The best way for a woman to be independent of a man is to refrain from marrying one, which is hardly a solution that Bennetts, her interview subjects, or her readers will find satisfactory.
If Binet is as doubt-filled about fiction, and as passionate about historical witness, as he says he is, the scrupulous response would be to refrain from writing fiction, or to do a kind of historical research that is not attempted here.
