Please help me understand this sentence.

Question

Mr Hu's speech offered scant hope that it would in the next five years either. He spoke of the need for more transparency and greater public participation. What does the green part exactly mean? And why does it need 'either'?

Yankee · Accepted Answer

Hi Ahn

Without the previous sentence, it's not possible to know what that means.

I can only say that in the previous sentence, Mr. Hu stated that something would not happen, and then in your first sentence here, Mr Hu added that something else probably would not happen either (i.e. would also not happen).

Ahn · Answer

When Mr Hu took over as party chief just after the last congress in 2002, optimists speculated that he might prove bolder than the previous paramount leaders, Jiang Zemin and Deng Xiaoping, in pushing for political reform. After Mr Hu's 2½-hour speech, China's state-owned news agency noted that he had used the word democracy more than 60 times. But Mr Jiang mentioned the word almost as often in 2002. Politically, little has changed.

Mr Hu's speech offered scant hope that it would in the next five years either. He spoke of the need for more transparency and greater public participation. But he offered few concrete suggestions for achieving this, such as strengthening China's largely ceremonial legislature. Nor, it seems, will he shed more light on his own doings.

-->Here is the more context including the previous sentences. I can't catch it in the previous sentence either, so can i say that 'it would in the next five years' means 'anything that causes problems now would also matters in the next five years either'?

Yankee · Answer

AhnPolitically, little has changed (since Mr. Hu took over as party chief after the last congress in 2002).

Mr Hu's speech offered scant hope that it would (change) in the next five years either.

-->Here is the more context including the previous sentences. I can't catch it in the previous sentence either, so can i say that 'it would in the next five years' means 'anything that causes problems now would also matters in the next five years either'?

Hi Ahn

The wording is not the best, but it means that "not very much has changed since 2002, and not much is expected to change in the next five years either".

It is the word 'little' (not much) that provides the first negative element and "scant hope" (not much hope) suggests the second negative element. And we use "either" when we want to say "too" in a negative sentence or when we add a second negative idea to a previously stated one.

Ahn · Answer

I understand completely now. Thanks for your nice answer, Yankee! ^-^

Please help me understand this sentence.

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