Question on parellelism - complex gerunds vs simple gerunds

[roshni.patram]

Hi,
I am going through the OG 10th edition and have a quick question to ask. This question has been discussed in other forums but my specific query was not raised.
I was wondering if I could get raise this here.

The question referred to is OG 10th ed - SC - 53

Since we are not allowed to reproduce the exact questions, I have tried to modify the question. I hope I am not violating any rules!

There is no consensus on what role is played by pesticides in slowing the growth or damaging plantlife in India.

(a) same as above
(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

I understand the answers provided in the OG. My questions are the following:

1) Are - "damaging" & "slowing the growth of" are simple gerunds?
2) If b had been " the damage to or the slowing of the growth of" -

Will "damage to" and "the slowing of the growth" be parallel and will the option be correct?

My understanding is that "damage to" is an action noun & "the slowing of the growth" is a complex gerund and these can be made parallel.

I would very much appreciate your help. Thank you very much.

I do apologize if I have violated any copyright rules.

[RonPurewal]

first -- in general, you shouldn't try to do this.
don't try to fix sentences!
even though this section of the test is called, ironically, "sentence correction", you do not need to be able to fix the sentences; you only need to be able to select the correct answer choice from the choices given.
trying to fix the sentences is an irrelevant skill set; if you do too much of this, it will distract you from the skill set that you actually need.

Since we are not allowed to reproduce the exact questions, I have tried to modify the question. I hope I am not violating any rules!

appreciated.

1) Are - "damaging" & "slowing the growth of" are simple gerunds?

i will confess that i don't know what a "simple gerund" is; perhaps one of our other moderators can address that point.

on the other hand, if you're getting into names that are that complicated, then your mind is in the wrong place. do not worry about complex or obscure names; instead, just try to cultivate a FUNCTIONAL understanding of grammar.
in other words, when you see a construction, just make sure that you know what it does and how it works; its name is irrelevant for all purposes except using google.

2) If b had been " the damage to or the slowing of the growth of" -

Will "damage to" and "the slowing of the growth" be parallel and will the option be correct?

that sentence would be grammatically correct, yes, but it would be (a) very awkward and (b) not idiomatic, for reasons that almost certainly won't be tested.
(this is the problem with trying to craft new answer choices if english isn't your first language; they wind up containing a whole host of new problems that don't exist in the correct answer and whose explanations will just over-complicate the issue. it's better to stick with the choices that are given.)

My understanding is that "damage to" is an action noun & "the slowing of the growth" is a complex gerund and these can be made parallel.

don't overcomplicate the issue -- they're both nouns, so they're parallel.
i don't even know what a "complex gerund" is; that sort of knowledge is not necessary here, and only serves to overcomplicate the issue.
noun; noun; parallel.
boom.

(you can tell that "slowing" is a noun because it's preceded by "the", which can only be attached to nouns)