Use of 十年中 to express duration Does 十年中 mean &quot;in ten years&quot;? I found it in this sentence from tatoeba.org:

他十年中第一次回家。
He returned home for the first time in ten years.

It seems like I could use the same pattern to say, &quot;I haven't had a drink in five years.&quot; 我五年中没有喝酒。 Does that work?
Yes.
中 can be used to express that something happened of didn't happen within a certain scope or range or just within something (《现代汉语词典》: 范围内；内部). The range doesn't need to be a time range, but it can be. Furthermore, it can also refer to the future.
So you can say:


他预言战争将在下几年中爆发: He predicted that war would break out in the next few years.
年中
在最近若干年中: In recent years
在过去一百二十年中，人口已膨胀了十倍: In the past 120 years the population has increased tenfold.
过去几年中，许多工人对美术发生了兴趣: Many workers have taken to the arts in the past few years.
随后的四十年中，债务人受州法律的保护: For the next 40 years debtors were subject to state laws.


As already mentioned it can also refer to other things than a time range. Some examples:
家中， 水中， 山中， 心中， 队伍中