rule out

To prevent; preclude:避免；排除在外：

The snowstorm ruled out their weekly meeting.暴风雪使他们一周一次的会议无法举行

To remove from consideration; exclude:不考虑；排除出去：

The option of starting over has been ruled out.重新开始这种选择已被排除考虑

as a rule

In general; for the most part:通常；总体上：

As a rule, we take the bus.通常，我乘公共汽车