They took a long time to mend the roof.

他们花了好长时间修缮房顶。

《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》

It took a long time for the wounds to heal.

伤口过了很长时间才愈合。

《牛津词典》

New fashions took a long time to percolate down.

新时尚要很长时间才能在大众中流行起来。

《柯林斯英汉双解大词典》

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

And it took a long time for that to be told to the American people.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House

The first is, it took a long time for this meeting to come to fruition.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing on BP Oil Spill

It took a long time, some four years, but the board finally let the CEO go.

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