Scientists would like to prevent something like that from happening in the future, but it would take time to figure out how to best knock an incoming asteroid off its collision course.

科学家希望能够防止今后发生类似的事件，但要弄清楚如何才能最好地阻断小行星碰撞地球的过程，还需要一定的时间。

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Prevent is a verb, which means to stop something from happening or someone from doing something.

也是动词，意指阻止事情发生或某人去做某事。

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It is high time we did something to prevent such a scene from happening.

现在是时候该我们做一些事以防止发生这样的事情。

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But cholesterol drugs are taken to prevent something from happening in the future.

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We're going to make sure that we identify any structural or management issues to prevent something like this from happening again.

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The PSN is being left offline in Japan for instance until the government gets more information about the new security measures that are in place to prevent something like this from happening again.

FORBES: Sony Brings PSN Online At Last