OG 53，请高人指点

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.

（D）damaged or slowed growth of forests：both damaged and slowed refer to growth（damage和slow的宾语是growth）

（E）damaging or slowing the growth of forests：both damaging and slowing the growth of refer to forests （damage和slow的宾语是forests）

为什么上面两种说法中，宾语不一样？（难道因为（E）中growth前有the？）

另外，两个并列的介词短语可以省略相同的介词吗？比如：the A of and B of = the A and B of，对吗？

谢谢leeon，有道理。

欢迎大家继续讨论

moreover,I think  damaged can not modify the noun,growth.

the boys and girls of our school

the boys and the girls of our school

楼上的意思是可以这样用？介词短语合并 介词？

The damage 后面没有of, of 只是跟在growth后面，这里没有省略。

应该是 damage the forest and slow the growth of forest.

第一句应该是boys和girls都是我们学校的吧？

而第二句是girls是我们学校的而boys不是我们学校的？那按ETS的标准应该将顺序换成the girls of our school and the boys才不会引起歧意吧？

这样楼主提的 the A of and B of = the A and B of 就是不正确的了哦？望大虾们指点啦！