OG53 一个没有被提到的问题

版主大人，各位前辈，我确实已经浏览过过去讨论的链接，但是没有发现答案!

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.

请问C讲的是啥意思呢？就这个小小的问题。望各位老师不吝赐教

slowness应该是缓慢的意思。原句意思是acid rain在slowing(使growth减缓)的作用，也许growth被acid rain减缓了，但绝对值仍然很快。

C是acid rain在slowness of growth（缓慢)的作用。为什么慢不知道，反正现在的growth的速度的绝对值很慢。

明白，谢谢Again老师！

我的大脑，在被SC折磨得这么久之后，终于短路了！

老师的名字......蕴含了很多人生哲理啊。。。。。。

Gracias！！！