Sentence:
Retailers reported moderate gains in their November sales, as much because of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that shoppers were getting a head start on buying their holiday gifts.

Underlined: of their sales of a year earlier being so bad as that

Correct: their sales a year earlier had been so bad as because

I answered this question correctly, but only because I ruled out the other answer choices. I think this question is a parallel structure question, as indicated by 'as much because' and 'as because'. Is that right? And 'as because' sounds incorrect, but obviously, it's not. I'm not sure it makes sense to ask why 'as because' is not wrong, but any explanation might help.

Thanks

Yes - it's a parallel structure issue.

"I went to the game as much because I wanted to see it as because i wanted the popcorn."

Since the "as because" isn't underlined, we have to work with it and make the rest of the sentence match it. Not my favorite construction either, because it sounds a little odd, but grammatically, it's fine, and again, we have to match the non-underlined section.

Veritas Help