老人卧病在床，无人照管。
4. The woman kept as near as she could to the children…这位妇女尽可能地靠近孩子……
keep在这里表示“保持(某种状态)”。 as…as one can/could和 as…as possible同义，都表示“尽可能……”：
He got through as much food as he could and set out.
他吃了尽可能多的食物，然后出发了。
Tell Jim to come to my office as soon as he can.
让吉姆尽快到我的办公室来。
5. She stamped out the letters‘SoS’ in the snow.她在雪地上踩出了\这3个字母。
out在这里为副词，表示“出现”、“显露”等：
The writer has brought out another book.
这位作家又出版了一本书。
He wrote out a long list of all the foods which were forbidden.
他开列一张长长的单子，上面列了所有禁吃的食物。
6. It was not long before a helicopter arrived on the scene to rescue the survivors of the plane crash. 不久，一架直升飞机飞抵飞机失事现场，来搭救这几个幸存者。
(1)to引导的不定式为目的状语。
(2)It was not long before…为固定句型，表示“不久就……”(也可以用 It will not be long before…表示将来可能发生的事)，
其含义与before long(不久)相近，只是before在课文这个句型中是连词，而在before long中为介词：
It was not long before they learnt the news.
他们不久就知道了这消息。
It will not be long before he gets over his illness.
他大概不久就会痊愈。
2020最新新概念英语第二册Lesson73~75课文注释
