The Arab who is friendly will stand close to his friend, but the Englishman will move back in order to keep a certain distance away. [《高中英语教科书》第二册(上), 人教社, p.16] 与该书配套的《教师教学用书》(人教社, p.104)对该句的注解如下：
“keep a certain distance away 保持一定的距离,其中的 keep away 作‘避开’、‘使离开’、‘不使接近’解。例如：
Keep away, or I'll call the police! 别过来，要不我叫警察了。
Keep away from that house. There is a dangerous dog there. 不要走近那座房子,那儿有只恶狗。
If you can keep them away, you're safe. 如果你不同他们接近，你就安全了。”
我觉得《教师用书》所作的解释和所举的例子与教科书上的句子对不上号。也就是说，教科书上的 keep a certain distance away 与 keep away from them 和 keep them away 并不是相同的结构。因此，keep a certain distance away 似乎不可以解释为 keep away a certain distance。又，该书说，keep away 作“避开”“使离开”解，这是不是说可以将 keep a distance away 译为“避开距离”“使距离避开”呢？
keep away 是个短语(away 是副词)，其基本含义是“不使……接近”“避开……”。keep away A from B 则是指“不使 A 接近 B”：
- An apple a day keeps the doctor away. 一日一苹果，医生远离我。
keep doing/keep on doing 756
- It's the job of the police to keep the spectators away (from the players). 阻止观众靠近（选手）是警察的职责。
课文中的 keep a certain distance away 显然不能用上面的结构来分析。因为 keep them away 是使 them 离开, keep the doctor away 是使 the doctor 离开, 而 keep a certain distance away 却不是使 a distance 离开。
因此,我们不得不另作分析:keep 在这里作“保持”解。keep a certain distance 意为“保持一定的距离”。那么 away 呢?副词 away 在这里作 distance 的定语,表示“隔开的”“离开的”。上面的句子可以改写为:
... keep a certain distance away from each other.
下面是类似的用法：
You'd better keep a distance away from the fire. 你最好离火远一点。
下列各句中的 keep one's distance 显然是“保持距离”的意思：
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I would keep my distance from that dog, if I were you! 我要是你，就离那条狗远一点！
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The old lady said that she did not trust foreigners and had kept her distance from them during her journey through France. 那位老太太说她不信任外国人，她在法国旅行时与他们总是保持着距离。