Carbon can-be valence electron that could-be removed using the least amount of energy.
The ionization energy trend refers to the need of an ion to displace electrons, or lose them. Your answer should be A, unless I didn't understand the question correctly.
Two or more orbitals that have the same energy are called degenerate orbitals. Those orbitals are different in a way that they are displayed differently in space around nucleus, but they are associated in the same energy. E.g., the three subshells of p orbital are px, py, and pz.