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Tkacka15 Posted 7 years ago
Vocabulary

Negatives

“There is no task so simple that government cannot overcomplicate if it doesn’t want to do it. And there are few tasks so complex that humanity cannot solve if we have a real sense of mission to pull them off.”

(Boris Johnson - the British MP.)


I've got to admit there are so many negatives in that utterance that it's hard to 'decode' the exact meaning of that. Could it be said more clearer, in plain English?

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I understand it like this: 'If the government doesn't want to solve any simple task, they overcomplicate it. And if we have a real sense of mission to be up to the task, then there are very few problems, so complex, that humanity cannot solve.'

Is my understanding correct?

  

Top answer

tkacka15 If the government doesn't want to solve any simple task, they overcomplicate it. This is along the right lines. A closer paraphrase may be: If the government does not want to do something then, however simple that thing actually is, the government can manage to overcomplicate it (so as to obstruct it or avoid doing it).

— GPY

  • tkacka15 If the government doesn't want to solve any simple task, they overcomplicate it.
  • This is along the right lines.
  • A closer paraphrase may be: If the government does not want to do something then, however simple that thing actually is, the government can manage to overcomplicate it (so as to obstruct it or avoid doing it).
  • tkacka15 if we have a real sense of mission to be up to the task, then there are very few problems, so complex, that humanity cannot solve.
  • Yes, but remove the commas around "so complex".
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1 Answers
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tkacka15If the government doesn't want to solve any simple task, they overcomplicate it.

This is along the right lines. A closer paraphrase may be:

If the government does not want to do something then, however simple that thing actually is, the government can manage to overcomplicate it (so as to obstruct it or avoid doing it).

tk
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