preliminary

n. 初步行动,准备,初步措施
a. 初步的,开始的,预备的

Our team got beaten in the preliminary rounds of the competition.

我们队在这次比赛的预赛中遭淘汰。

There are a lot of preliminaries to be gone through before you can visit a foreign country.

在出访外国之前要做好许多准备工作。