同学你好，该知识点来自沪江网校《韩刚翻译全科畅学卡》的课程，想要更系统的学习，欢迎进入课程学习。不仅可以和更多的同学一起学习，而且还有老师、助教随时的学习指导和知识点解答哦。

同学好~

助助觉得说指代前一句的谓语，这种说法不够严谨，也具有误导性，应该说nor是对前一句否定句的继承，表示，前一句的情况是否定的，而后一句的内容也是否定的；
Nor could America's 400 million population by mid-century have a prayer of containing Asia's five billion people. 这句话，同学把nor当成一个传承前文否定含义的否定词，当做，not as well（也不），然后调整下语序就明白了：
America's 400 million population could not have a prayer of containing Asia's five billion people as well by mid-century.

希望帮同学解释清楚了~