OG 53. There is no consensus on what role, if any, is played by acid rain in slowing the growth or damaging forests in the eastern United States.

(A) slowing the growth or damaging

(B) the damage or the slowing of the growth of

(C) the damage to or the slowness of the growth of

(D) damaged or slowed growth of（E）

(E) damaging or slowing the growth of

The corrected sentence must make clear that both damaging and slowing the growth of refer to forests. E is the only choice that does so without introducing errors. In choice A, of is required after growth. In choices B and C, the use of the damage instead of damaging produces awkward and wordy constructions, and without to after damage, B is grammatically incomplete. In C, the slowness of does not convey the original sense that the rate of growth has been slowed by acid rain. Choice D also changes the meaning of the sentence by making both damaged and slowed refer to growth.

damaging the growth of forest or slowing the growth of

or: damaging forest or slowing the growth of forest

谢谢!

首先，这里不是介词结构. 应该是个动宾结构.

其次, V1+N, V2+N, 可以将V1, V2用and, or等连词连接, 然后加上名词. 所以E里面damage后面省略的只是forests, 不是介词of.