They began to make preparations several days in advance of her arrival.他们在她到达前几天就开始准备了。We started to make preparations for the wedding about a year ago.大约一年前，我们开始筹备婚礼。Nobody likes to have wars, but we must make preparations for a hypothetical warfare.没有人喜欢战争，但我们一定要为假设性的战争作出准备。