曹老师的解答非常好（请采纳曹老师的解答）！网友的句子看似复杂，其实用的就是it takes sb sometime to do sth句式，只不过这里的 sb 是一个带了定语从句的名词性短语，再加上句子里出现了几个稍有难度的单词，所以网友就有点懵了。下面是我从书上找的几个可以是网友所需的类似句子，供参考！

It took the builders three weeks to lay the foundations. 建筑工人花了三星期的时间打地基。

It took the tennis champion a few games to get the measure of his opponent. 那网球冠军打了几局才摸清对手的实力。

It took the firm where I had worked five years to recoup its losses. 我曾经工作过的这家公司花了5年时间才挽回损失。

It took the new teacher who had just graduated from collage quite a few days to remember who was who in the class. 这位刚从大学毕业的老师花了好几天时间才记住班上学生的名字。

网友句子的翻译：

Unfortunately, it took the explorers and the settlers who followed only a few decades to decimate a large part of these resources.

不幸的是，只过了几十年，这些探险家和随后而来的居者就把这些资源的很大一部分给毁了。