当动词不定式充当后置定语时，大都隐含着时态意义或情态意义：

I've brought a book to read .

Is he really a man to be trusted ?

The procedure to be followed ...

但是当先行词含有 first ，  next ， last ，或者形容词最高级这样的词语时，则充当定语的动词不定式通常不含有将来意义或情态意义，而含有过去时意义。

He was the first man to fly across the Atlantic .

He was the first to be there .

They were the last guests to arrive .

He was one of the first to collect Picasso paintings .

I arrived first . The next one to arrive was James .

Ameria Earhart , the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean , was born in 1898 .

The great racing driver , Sir Malcolm  Campbell , was the first man to drive at over 300 miles per hour .

The deepest hole ever to be bored on land went down 25340 feet--considerably less than the height of Mount Everest .

The next man to approach me was selling expensive pens and watches .