だけ / と / まさかそんなこと... / あそこ / ことに

[eeky]

Hi,


1. サムにはマラソンを完走するだけの力がない。

Translation given: "Sam doesn't have the stamina to finish a marathon."

What is the purpose of だけ in this sentence?


2. ジグソーとは糸鋸の事で、名前の由来はそこからきているの。

Translation given: "Jigsaw refers to a fret saw - that's how the name's origin was derived."

Is と a quotation particle here?


3. The narrator has been telling how he watched a young boy trying to figure out how to correctly dispose of a plastic bottle in some sort of recycling bin. The boy is confused because he can't find any instructions explaining what to do with the cap. Then:

まさかそんなことで悩んでいるとは思わなかったので、 びっくりした。

I am not very sure here who is the subject of the various verbs. Does it mean "I hadn't thought for a moment that he would have trouble with such a thing (i.e. disposing of the cap), so I was surprised"?


4. The narrator has now finished watching the boy disposing of the bottle:

よくあそこまでできるものだと感心して私もオフィスに 戻った。

I get the sense that might mean "Feeling that (the boy) had done well, I returned to my office." However, I do not really understand よくあそこまでできるもの. It looks to me as if it could literally mean "a thing completed successfully up to that point". Is that close? I guess mostly I don't understand what あそこ refers to...


5. 驚いたことに、午後の休憩時間に一服していると、また 来たのである。

My translation: "To my surprise, when I went out for a cigarette during my afternoon break, (the boy) came back again."

Is ことに = 殊に, meaning (per dictionary) "especially; particularly; unusually", in this case having the sense "unusually"? I can't quite get my head round how 驚いた could modify an adverb like this.

 

[Toritoribe]

1)

［2］ それが限界で、それ以上には及ばないという気持ちをこめて、程度を表す。
あれ―立派な人はいないね
走れる―走りなさい

だけ Weblio辞書

2)
Yes. It's the same to というのは.

3)
Right. The three subjects are all correct.

4)
感心する means "to admire".
I think your translation "to that point" is good. あそこ refers to the way how the boy completely correctly separated the plastic bottle.

5)
That's the pronoun 事.

 

[eeky]

Thanks Toritoribe.

1. Are the following translations of the dictionary entries correct?

あれだけ立派な人はいないね = There is nobody that wonderful.
走れるだけ走りなさい = Run until you can run no more.

5. Actually, that was my first thought, but I can't see what purpose に has. Could you explain?

 

[Toritoribe]

1)
Yes, but 走れるだけ might be more close to "as far as you can run". I would use 走れなくなるまで for "until you can run no more", though the difference between the two expressions is subtle as same as the difference in English.

5)
Maybe I wrote this somewhere, ことに acts as an adverbial clause, meaning 驚いたことだが/だけど.
This was a surprising thing to me that~ = I was surprised that~

 

[eeky]

Thank you!