Carcass wrote:
Weird as sentence. Someone could say that this kind of sentence is crap.
Why ? Notice the words contrary to those who say that the erosion of the soil is "dire" which means dreadful or terrible, then we would expect in the last part of the sentence some kind of words that tells us that the erosion after all is not that BAD. I.E. that is indeed good.
I saw two kinds of official question lately in the mentor course that has this kind of feeling.
You believe that in the first part is X and so in the second part is Y : the contrary.
Instead, here the second part tells us that the erosion of the soil is even worse than what we thought.
And the only words that tells us the decline or that this erosion has been increased are B and E
Let me know if you need further explanations sir
I disagree; the contrast lies between 'dire' and 'steadily.' It's not as dire, but it has been steadily deteriorating/worsening(referring to soil loss).