但很久之前，人们就已经开始准备了。

But long before, people started preparing in other ways.

youdao

如果不是己经习惯了这样的回答，我可能会不大相信她所说的，但很久己经我便己经确信他们看到的的确很少。

I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such responses, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.

youdao

他讲了很久，但并没有人真正理解他的意思。

He spoke for a long time but his meaning didn't really come across.

《牛津词典》

And scientists have been working on this for years and there's been progress, but it's still a very difficult challenge.

科学家们对此已经研究很久了,并取得了进展,但仍有很大挑战

耶鲁公开课 - 关于食物的心理学、生物学和政治学课程节选

In, over my life? Oh my gosh! I hope a long time, but I think my knees are probably going to give up.

我的一生吗？天啊，我希望我能跑很久很久，但我想我的膝盖可能受不了。

在马拉松认识的朋友 - SpeakingMax英语口语达人

So one problem is unenforceability but that might far off ago that might have been a problem.

强制性是一个问题,但那也是在很久以前的问题

耶鲁公开课 - 博弈论课程节选