During the preceding decade a serious threat to Italy had developed in the north.
The Spurs had spent the preceding decade meticulously developing the most consistently exceptional team in the league.
In the preceding decade, about one in five races for seats in the State Legislature offered voters one candidate.
Inspired by architectural trends of the preceding decade, the classrooms in one of its wings didn't have doors.
The city's GDP growth fell to 9.3% last year from an average of more than 13% over the preceding decade.
Of the women who were low paid in 2012, one in three (33 %) had been stuck on it over the preceding decade – 900,000 employees.
However, during the period of legal mephedrone popularity, deaths from cocaine – which over the preceding decade has risen inexorably year on year – fell precipitously.
For all the current talk about a democratic crisis in euroland, the politicians themselves gave much of their own sovereignty away in the preceding decade.
Unlike the polished folk, blues and Afropop of the preceding decade, Konono No 1 and Kasai Allstars were celebrated for their messy, often distorted electric dance music.
The conclusions of the IPCC Concerning the atmosphere, each of the last three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth's surface than any preceding decade since 1850.
Social media and new technology were crucial in shaping the revolutions of 2011, just as they shaped industry, finance and mass culture in the preceding decade.
