He asserted, also, that his power to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought was very limited, for which reason he felt certain that he never could have succeeded with mathematics.

[核心詞匯]

assert(v.)堅(jiān)持；斷言// abstract (a.)抽象的；(v.)提取，抽取；(n.)摘要// a train of 一系列

[結(jié)構(gòu)分析]

本句的主干結(jié)構(gòu)為he asserted that…（他斷言……），that引導(dǎo)賓語(yǔ)從句，賓語(yǔ)從句的主干為his power was very limited（他的能力十分有限），to follow a long and purely abstract train of thought（進(jìn)行長(zhǎng)時(shí)間純抽象思維）為power的后置定語(yǔ)。for which reason he felt certain that…（正因?yàn)槿绱?，他確信……）為非限定性定語(yǔ)從句，修飾前面的his power…was very limited。定語(yǔ)從句中又包含that引導(dǎo)的賓語(yǔ)從句that he never could have succeeded with mathematics（他在數(shù)學(xué)方面不可能取得成功）。

[翻譯技巧]

不定式結(jié)構(gòu)to follow...thought 作power的后置定語(yǔ)，翻譯時(shí)可采用前置法，放在被修飾的名詞之前。for which reason引導(dǎo)非限定性定語(yǔ)從句，在從句中作狀語(yǔ)，可譯作“因此，正因?yàn)槿绱恕?，這個(gè)定語(yǔ)從句又嵌套that引導(dǎo)的賓語(yǔ)從句，賓語(yǔ)從句的謂語(yǔ)動(dòng)詞never could have done是對(duì)過(guò)去發(fā)生動(dòng)作或狀態(tài)的推測(cè)，表示“不可能做過(guò)”的含義。

[參考譯文]

他還斷言，自己進(jìn)行長(zhǎng)時(shí)間純抽象思維的能力十分有限，正因?yàn)槿绱?，他確信自己在數(shù)學(xué)方面不可能取得成功。