1.   It took several centuries for feudalism to be formed.

2.   It used to take centuries to build up a centimetre or two of topsoil.

3.   The spruce, fir, pine, larch, oak and birch trees cut down will taken centuries to replace because growth is slow on the permafrost.

4.   But fields that have been heavily dosed with chemical weedkillers and fertilizers would take centuries to become home to such a wealth of wildlife.

5.   And because emptying such a huge natural gas reservoir just to power the oil refinery would take a few centuries, Amoco and Hondo hope to find broader markets.

6.   Baron Edmond apparently hoped to do with Clarke in a few years what his cousins at Mouton and Lafite had taken a century to achieve.

7.   Because of them, an artistic evolution that might have taken centuries was compressed into a couple of decades.

8.   A painting, give or take a few centuries of wear and tear, is the same object the painter created in his studio.

9.   After all, it took centuries for Europeans to accept potatoes, and look what they were missing.

10.   But exceptions to its usual workings took a century to discover.