To boost the nations economy, it is at least as important for busines

KAPLAN OFFICIAL EXPLANATION

(C)

Step 1: Read the Original Sentence Carefully, Looking for Errors

The underlined portion begins with “at least as,” which should idiomatically be paired with as (at least as X as Y). However, the sentence is phrased “at least as . . . than,” which is incorrect. Because “than” cannot be changed, “at least as” must be changed to something that connects to “than.”

Step 2: Scan and Group the Answer Choices

(A) and (B) start with “at least as,” (C) and (D) begin with “no less,” and (E) begins with “as.”

Step 3: Eliminate Choices Until Only One Remains

(A) and (B) can be eliminated for starting with “at least as,” which does not match with “than.” Also, by changing “to focus” to “focusing,” (B) removes the active verb telling what businesses need to do. Instead, it sounds as though the author is talking about businesses that are already focusing on worker productivity.

(E) changes “at least as” to the overly wordy phrase “as . . . if not more.” However, this still does not form a correctly phrased comparison with “than,” so the idiom error persists. Eliminate (E).

(C) and (D) change “at least as” to “no less,” which does match to “than” (I am no less interested in pizza than in ice cream). However, (D) changes the verb “to focus” to “focusing,” which removes the active verb just as (B) does. That error eliminates (D), leaving (C) as the correct answer. To confirm, read that choice into the sentence:

To boost the nation’s economy, it is no less important for businesses to focus on developing worker productivity than it is for them to hire new employees.