Choose the correct structure to complete the sentence. The government helps…

CONCEPT

Degrees of comparison in English have three forms — positive (low), comparative (lower/less), and superlative (lowest/least). An intensifier such as "very" combines only with the positive-degree form of a gradable adjective (very low, very good); it does not combine with a comparative form (less, lesser), because a comparative already expresses a degree of comparison and cannot be intensified in that same way.

APPLICATION

The blank needs a word or phrase describing "rates of interest" that fits the sentence's meaning — that loans are offered to the poor on affordable terms. "Low" is the positive-degree adjective for interest rates, and "very low rates of interest" is the standard, natural collocation used in everyday and banking English to describe rates that make loans affordable.

CROSS-CHECK — why each other option misses the mark

• "very less" pairs the intensifier "very" with "less", which is already a comparative form — this combination is not standard English.

• "mainly lesser" pairs "lesser" (a comparative adjective normally placed before a noun, as in "the lesser evil") with "mainly" ("for the most part"); the resulting phrase is not idiomatic and does not fit describing a rate.

• "mostly less" pairs "mostly" ("in most cases") with the comparative "less"; this combination does not form a standard adjective phrase either.

Only "very low" correctly pairs the intensifier with the positive-degree adjective, producing the standard phrase "very low rates of interest."