请问OG53题

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) damaging or slowing the growth of

In GMAT, a rule of thumb is that we should not alter the original mean of the sentence. In this case, choice E, in my opinion, use both 'damaging' and 'slowing' to modify the noun, 'growth'.   In the original sentence, however, growth is only modified by slowing, not by damaging. So how to explain this phenomenon? I mean that is it still reliable to adhere to the theroy that do not alter the original mean?

we can say :slow ,stunt the growth of the forests........

but not say : damage the growth .....

certainly we also can say damage the forests ,buildings, or career