と comes after a quotation to mark that everything in the quotation is being thought or spoken aloud. It helps to distinguish it from the rest of the sentence. More info in this CureDolly video.
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I think it’s common in Japanese to switch between present and past. I’m not always 100% sure why this switching occurs but the narrator can for example give background information in the past and then switch to the present to describe an action like he’s right there next to the characters.
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It’s the way the story progresses. He keeps getting into trouble while pursuing his questioning, falling in a lake etc. His dad is fed up with it. His teacher is fed up with it. Only his mother sees his questioning mind as a positive thing.
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As far as I know this phrase often has a negative connotation. 呆れた is a bit like I’m fed up. Therefore I think もんだ here is not used to speak about a common occurrence in the past but it stresses the emotion.
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@cgolner, @buburoi, @Micki Thanks a lot for the replies and explanations!
I’ll check out the CureDolly links. Also interesting with the past/present switch, I’ll look out for it in the future and try to find a pattern for when it’s used.
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My attempt at page 14:
Summary
「お母さん先生」が くれた 科学の 本には、むねが わくわくする ことが いっぱい のっていました。
When “mom-sensei” gave him a science book, his heart was thrilled, there was so much going on.
中でも、エジソンを おどろかせたのは、「電信の仕組み」でした。
Above all, Edison was surprised by the mechanism of the telegraph.
「電気の しんごうで、遠く はなれた 人に メッセージうを おくるのか。電気の
力って、すごいんだなあ。ぼくも、ためしてみたい！」
By using an electric signal you can send messages to people far away. Wow the power of electricity is amazing. I want to try it too!
十二さいに なると、エジソンは、汽車の 中で 新聞を 売る しごとを はじめました。
When he was 12 years old, Edison started working by selling newspapers on a steam train.
そして 三年後、うんめいの できごとに 出会うのです。
Then three years later, he met a faithful event.
ー
This was the hardest one for me so far, a few questions I have are.
How would one translate ことが？ With the following words and context I can kind of piece it together but would greatly appreciate any clarification 
The ～みたい grammar point in ためしてみたい, the results I’ve found have been that it translates to “looks like” but that doesn’t seem to make sense here… Or could this translate to “Looks like I should give it a shot”
中で, in japanese, would you say “in a train” instead of “on a train”?
As always, thank you!
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A specialty of Japanese is that relative clauses (i.e. short passages describing a thing) are placed in front of the thing, so you have to stack them in your brain until the thing appears that the whole relative clause unloads on
For example,
「お母さん先生」が くれた 科学の 本には
This is talking about 本 - a book.
Which book? 科学の 本 - A study book.
What do we know further about it? 「お母さん先生」が くれた - His mom gave it to him.
So this part translates to “In the book that his ‘teacher mom’ gave him”.
Now we know for this sentence that the topic is “in that book”. This is important to understand the rest, so let’s keep this in mind.
The next bit is むねが わくわくする - getting thrilled. This ends with a verb, but the sentence is not over yet, so we know for sure that this is another relative clause.
What does it attach to? こと - things. So all together: むねが わくわくする こと - exciting things.
Now we encounter the particle が so we know that the exciting things are the subject of our sentence.
So what about the things? いっぱい のっていました. This is a bit hard to understand but this is the verb 載る - Jisho.org “to appear (in print), to be mentioned”.
So, in summary, the book (= topic) contained plenty of exciting things (= subject).
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@NicoleIsEnough to the rescue! Thank you!
So a more accurate translation would be:
The science book his “mom-sensei” gave him, contained plenty/so many exciting things!
?
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You’re very welcome! Yes that sounds like a very good translation to me.
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I guess from looking at the context you could argue that she gave him more than one book.
And one more thing:
Maybe you translated more feely on purpose but I think this is more like:
What surprised Edison above all was the mechanism of the telegraph.
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Ah yeah that translation makes more sense
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p. 15 with a dramatic cliffhanger
Summary
エジソンがある日、駅のベンチに座っていたときのこと。
One day Edison was sitting on a bench at a station.
突然線路に男の子が飛び出していったのです。
Suddenly a boy jumped out onto the railway tracks.
目の前には汽車がーー。
Right in front of him, a train —.
「あっ、坊や、危ない！」
“Hey, boy, it’s dangerous!”
エジソンはすぐさま線路に飛び込みました。
Edison immediately jumped onto the railway tracks.
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Here is my version, your translations inspired me to write down mine as well.
It happened one day when Edison was sitting on a bench at the station.
Suddenly a boy jumped on the tracks.
There right in front of him, a steam train …
„Hey boy, it’s dangerous!“
Edison jumped immediately on the tracks.
To be honest I didn’t really know what to make with this こと at the end of the first sentence. If somebody knows more about it, please let me know.
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My guess is that it’s Perhaps: “It (こと, the incident) happened while … was sitting …”
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Yes, thats how I translated it, but I was confused because there was no predicate at the end.
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The ends of Japanese sentences are often puzzling. Sometimes there are omissions, sometimes there are unneeded appendages よね.
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This sentence reminded me of the style of a newspaper headline. For example compare a newspaper headline - “Incident at the train station!” - with a normal sentence “There was an incident at the train station!”
It’s shorter and sharper, and it sounds more dramatic. That was the kind of feel I got from this sentence.
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The sentence “エジソンがある日、駅のベンチに座っていた” can be translated as “Edison was sitting in a chair at the train station”
But what happens when we add “ときのこと”?
The real sentence is:エジソンがある日、駅のベンチに座っていたときのこと
Does someone else find it easier to read with kanji?
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