prior to，在……之前

Cheng, Dhaliwal, and Zheng (2013) provide evidence on the relation between reporting quality and investment efficiency by finding that firms invest poorly prior to the disclosure of a material weakness in internal control.

Cheng、Dhaliwal和Zheng（2013）发现，在披露内部控制的重大弱点之前，公司的投资表现不佳，从而为报告质量与投资效率之间的关系提供了证据。