Source: The Official Guide for GMAT Verbal Review 11th Ed., Sentence Correction, Question 75

In a recent poll, 86 percent of the public favored a Clean Air Act as strong or stronger than the present act.

My question is, if the sentence above contained "as strong as", would it be a perfectly constructed sentence? In other words, it would be correct as is, and therefore the answer would be a.

The correct answer is: a Clean Air Act at least as strong as

Thanks!

Grammatically, you are correct. The correct idiom is "as strong as." However, in this particular example, "as strong as" would change the intended meaning of the original sentence. Thus, you must include "at least" to maintain this original intent.

ps - Please include the entire question with answer choices in future posts. Doing so will help other students who review these questions and responses.

Thanks :D