word function

[Anonymous]

Could anyone do me a favor to tell me the function of “isolated” in the sentence of “It’s very quiet, isolated as it is on a small island.” and “as of” in “As of 10 am yesterday, the cumulative number of confirmed SARS cases rose to 5,249”? Thank you very much for your assistance.

[Tdol]

Could anyone do me a favor to tell me the function of “isolated” in the sentence of “It’s very quiet, isolated as it is on a small island.” and “as of” in “As of 10 am yesterday, the cumulative number of confirmed SARS cases rose to 5,249”? Thank you very much for your assistance.

isolated means it is a long way from other people.
As of means this is thecut-off point, like 'so far'.

[Anonymous]

"As of" is as Tdol says and "at/up to".