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I am trying to improve my reading comprehension and I was curious about something I have read in Japanese to Chinese translation of a manga light novel:
实际上，对不断变化的模式无法继续追加观察，而吃了经由茧利在纳贾库普身体中设置的装置产生的电气刺激。full context.
I want to understand why does it say "吃" here? What is the target of 吃 if it is meaning "eating?" / Who is doing the "吃"?
If someone can break the sentence down and help me understand and parse it, I will be thankful!
The text you posted is extended from a simple sentence
" Subject (omitted) 吃了 (took) 电气刺激 (an electric shock)
from the simple sentence above, additional relative clauses are added to give more information:
"对不断变化的模式无法继续追加观察" stating the cause of the subject took an electric shock, was the subject couldn't track and observe the continually changing mode (of an object, which is also omitted)
"经由茧利在纳贾库普身体中设置的装置产生的" is a adjectival clause for the noun "电气刺激". It describes the origin of the electric shock (which was generated by the device that 茧利 implanted in 纳贾库普's body)
'吃' in '吃了' doesn't mean 'to eat' , it means 'took' as in 'took a left hook' (吃了一记左钩拳)
[实际上，] "In fact" (opening proclamation)
[subject] (omitted)
[对不断变化的模式无法继续追加观察，] (relative clause, stating the cause)
[而] "Therefore"
[吃了] " took"
[经由茧利在纳贾库普身体中设置的装置产生的] (relative clause, adds details information on the following noun
[电气刺激。] electric shock (noun)
[吃了电气刺激。] "took an electric shock" (result)
Before we look into the explanation of 吃了, we need to acknowledge that
translations, unless done by professionals, most of the time will sound/look weird even/especially to native speakers.
Now for the 吃. Like Tang Ho said, 吃了 in here means took.
You can see similar usage in 吃我一拳 which means take my punch.
The rest of the sentence doesn't really make sense. A little advise, if you want to improve Chinese reading skills, read something that's written in Chinese, not translated into Chinese.(I've done Eng-to-Ch translations before, and some things just can't be translated perfectly into normal Chinese(grammar-wise) without spending a ton of time. A manga light novel just doesn't sound like it can afford the time and money it needs to be translated.
A fun fact: Translation style writing/speaking is something we can pretty easily recognize. Sometime when writers want to create a foreign character without writing in another language, they will use this style so that their 'foreign-ness' pops.
Note: If you really want to read Japanese novels, read those that are super famous so you can get better translations.
