In the old days, it took a long time to count the votes from the November elections.

VOA: special.2009.01.19

So it took a long time for the twenty books that we have to get settled on. And we'll talk about how that actually happened,also,still.

所以很长一段时间之后那27本书,才最终被确定下来，我们会谈及,那是如何实现的。

耶鲁公开课 - 新约课程节选

So what I'm saying now is it took a long time for this to solidify. And one of the things we think made it solidify was the development of codices,a codex.

所以这花了很长一段时间,才得以统一，我们觉得,使它统一的是抄本的出现。

耶鲁公开课 - 新约课程节选

In retrospect, you know, I thought it was such a hard rule because it took me a long time to find a buyer, but it worked out because they didn't have trouble qualifying for a loan.

NPR: Tips on Considering a Condo Purchase

He told the BBC World Service Newshour programme that the offensive "knows the targets it is after, and it took a long time to plan and prepare for this".

BBC: Nigeria army's offensive to continue 'as long as it takes'

He called it the phonograph, and it took a long time for librarians to figure out that the echoes of speech and music that Edison and his successors etched on discs were as important a part of our collective memory as the words that Johannes Gutenberg and his successors printed on paper.

WSJ: Copyright Protection That Serves to Destroy | Sightings by Terry Teachout