C.
白鳥先生 : 教授が患者の家族から100万円を受けとったというのは言ったはずだ
我々はその100万のためだけに無意味に老人の体を切り刻んだ
about the transcription
There were only two kanji I needed to search on a dictionary in order to type them; that’s a so good feeling…
- 受 : it turned to be past form of verb うけとる (can also be writen 受け取る in addition to 受けとる)
- 刻 : it turned to be past form of verb きざむ (in compound verb きりきざむ (切り刻む))
Interpretations:
I'm sure to have said you that the professor receives 1 million yen from the patient's family
教授が患者の家族から100万円を受けとったというのは言ったはずだ
professor [subject] patient [の] family [from] 100-man-yen [object] receive+past - means - say+past - expected to
万（まん) is a unit with 4 zeroes, so 百万 is 100,0000 = 1,000,000
受け取る : to receive, to get, to accept (compound made of 受ける, to receive to get; and 取る, to take)
というのは : yes, that difficult bit again… it is a topic or emphasis (は) about the fact of saying something; and the whole expression is used to mark what precedes, and that an explanation or definition of that will will follow
言ったはずだ : はず+だ/です is used to express something like “is supposed to”, “ought to”. However, in this context, “It’s supposed to being said that…”, I think the meaning is “I’m sure I told you” (which, indeed is the case, as we can see some pages earlier)
It’s still a complex grammar construction, some more input would be welcome
We chopped the body of the old man for no reason other than that million.
我々はその100万のためだけに無意味に老人の体を切り刻んだ
we [topic] that 100-man [の] purpose - only [purpose] non-sense [adverbial] old-people [の] body [object] cut-chop+past
I think there are not grammatical difficulties here;
just some vocabulary:
- 我々 (われわれ) : We (repetition of われ which is (yet another) pronoun for “I”)
- ため : purpose, goal
- だけ : only; and the に particle of purpose (for only the purpose of…)
- 無意味 : you may already be familiar with 意味 (いみ, meaning); adding the prefix 無 (む) negates it: un-meaning, meaningless; and then the に particle to make it an adverb: meaninglessly; that adverb qualifies the next verb
- 切り刻んだ : to cut/chop; it is a compound of 切る, to cut; and 刻む, to mince, to cut in fine parts; and the verb is in the past (being a -mu godan verb, it changes -mu => -nda). I have the feeling that this verb carries, in the context of medical things, a much lower opinion than just 切る
Note also how " 100万" here isn’t followed by a counter/unit; which isn’t “proper” grammar.