earned a smashing victory in legislative elections last spring

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Does "last spring" here refer to "the spring of this year (March 20 - June 20 of 2020)"?

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But in many major countries, she said, voters appeared eager to reward leaders for getting the virus under control, most notably in South Korea where the incumbent president’s party earned a smashing victory in legislative elections last spring. The American campaign has the potential to yield the world’s first major election since the onset of the pandemic in which voters deliver an emphatically negative judgment on their government’s response.

Source: NYTimes
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/02/us/politics/trump-biden-virus-campaign-2020.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

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View best answer, chosen by oristarA

@oristarA,

Have you read the article? It talks about rewarding leaders for getting Covid 19 under control.

There was no Covid 19 pandemic in Spring 2019, therefore logically it has to refer to elections in 2020.

It’s called common sense, and if you used it more often you wouldn’t have to ask so many stupid questions.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Why not used "this spring", which would be more accurate?
Now you can understand that the question is intelligent.

2 Replies

@oristarA,

Because last spring works justas well and the meaning is obvious to anyone who isn’t a complete idiot.

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@oristarA,

"this" Spring/Summer/Winter/Fall indicates the season you are in, or the next time that season is coming in the future.

"last" Spring/Summer/Winter/Fall tells you it passed.

If someone said to you in April (a Spring month) "These last 2 Winters have been very harsh", they would mean the Winter that just ended a couple of months ago and the year before.

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@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

Because last spring works justas well and the meaning is obvious to anyone who isn’t a complete idiot.

No. "The spring of this year" would be unambiguously clear - much clearer than "last spring", which sounds as if to mean "the spring of last year".

Your weakness of grammatical analysis has betrayed you and you have had to bluff it out.

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@chai2,

chai2 wrote:

"this" Spring/Summer/Winter/Fall indicates the season you are in, or the next time that season is coming in the future.

"last" Spring/Summer/Winter/Fall tells you it passed.

If someone said to you in April (a Spring month) "These last 2 Winters have been very harsh", they would mean the Winter that just ended a couple of months ago and the year before.

That is crystal clear. Very Happy

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earned a smashing victory in legislative elections last spring

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