英语翻译Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated to interest

a world与 the greater portion之间应该有一个逗号，即：Such a piece of news was scarcely calculated to interest a world， the greater portion of whose inhabitants were unaware of the existence of the planet Neptune.这样后面就是一个whose引导的非限制性定语从句，先行词是world，whose inhabitants=the inhabitants of the world，否则，从语法角度看，同一句话有两个谓语（was scarcely calculated和were unaware of）是说不通的。

nor本身就是一个否定副词，意为“也不，也没有”，前面不需要再有否定词了，另外，需要注意，否定副词放句首，句子需要倒装， nor outside......这句话就是一个例子，正常语序应该是：outside the astronomical profession, the subsequent discovery of a faint remote speck of light in the region of the perturbed planet did not cause any very great excitement. 原句是把谓语动词的一部分即did提前来变成倒装句。