どうしたらいい / に / それなくして

[eeky]

Hi,


1. 教科書はどうしたらいいんでしょうか。

The translation given for this is "Where do we get the textbooks?", but is there anything in the Japanese that specifically means "Where do we get..."? How would you translate this?


2. 別に制服着込んだ外宇宙の使者が、伴侶を求めて徘徊してるわけでもなかろうに。

What is に at the end doing?


3. この食べ物には、それなくしては我々の身体が正しく機能しないすべてのミネラル。

Is それなくして = それ + 無くして?

 

[SomeCallMeChris]

1. It (nearly) literally says 'What do you suppose would be good to do about textbooks?' (That's still not extremely literal, but any more literal and you can't be grammatical in English.) And I'd translate it 'Where do we get the textbooks?' or maybe 'How do we get our textbooks?'. 'どうしたらいいんでしょうか' is practically a set phrase for asking about procedures.

2 I can't say without context, maybe it's obvious to someone else.

3. Yes. More importantly, the それなくして。。。しない double-negative is acting as 'must have'.

 

[Toritoribe]

1)
Yeah, right, "asking about procedures", therefore it also can mean "Where do we put the textbooks?" or "How/Where do we dispose of the textbooks?", etc., depending on the context.

2)
に indicates the reason/cause. The sentence expresses ～わけでもなかろうに（＝ないだろうに）、なぜそんなに怖がるのか/驚くのか or something (the missing part must be mentioned in the preceding sentence).

3)
It's the same as それなしには / それがないと / それがなかったら.

 

[eeky]

Thanks!