Modern people live busy lives, and making the perfect cup of tea properly is _________ important than making it easily and conveniently.

Modern people live busy lives, and making the perfect cup of tea properly is _________ important than making it easily and conveniently.

• A. More
• B. As
• C. Less
• D. Not

Answer: (C)

The tendency here is to compare how important two things are using a standard comparative form. Saying something is less important than something else expresses a smaller degree of importance. In this sentence, because modern life is busy, convenience outweighs perfection, so “less important” fits naturally: making the tea perfectly isn’t as crucial as making it easily and conveniently. Using “more” would flip the meaning, implying perfection is more important. “As” would be used for equality (as important as), which doesn’t match the intended comparison. “Not” wouldn’t fit the pattern unless you had “not as important as,” which isn’t the form shown. So the correct choice is the word that marks a lower degree of importance.

The tendency here is to compare how important two things are using a standard comparative form. Saying something is less important than something else expresses a smaller degree of importance. In this sentence, because modern life is busy, convenience outweighs perfection, so “less important” fits naturally: making the tea perfectly isn’t as crucial as making it easily and conveniently.

Using “more” would flip the meaning, implying perfection is more important. “As” would be used for equality (as important as), which doesn’t match the intended comparison. “Not” wouldn’t fit the pattern unless you had “not as important as,” which isn’t the form shown. So the correct choice is the word that marks a lower degree of importance.