besides or on the contrary

[hhs010120]

Hello teachers
Please help me out In the next paragraph, which is better, besides or on the contrary?

Nineteenth-century writings about disease offer a window into earlier conceptions of the body. Perhaps less obviously, these same writings speak to earlier conceptions of the environment. Different conceptions of illness point to differences in how people have understood the nonhuman world. When viewed from the perspective of health, the nineteenth- century environment was neither passive nor necessarily benign in its natural state. Besdes/On the contrary, the "natural" environment, especially those environments least touched by the processes of civilization, acted on settlers' bodies in sometimes aggressive and unpredictable ways. Consequently, untested landscapes were always physically threatening. This fear of distant and unfamiliar places generated large amounts of popular advice for would-be settlers and travelers. At the same time, existing medical and scientific practices brought the environmental sources of disease into focus.

Thanks

[Rover_KE]

Please tell us the source and author of that text.

[hhs010120]

I got the text from a prep book. I don't know who the real author is.

[Rover_KE]

What do you mean by 'a prep book'?

Did the author use 'besides' or 'on the contrary'?

[hhs010120]

It a book for students who are preparing for an English exam.
The author used on the contary but can I use besides because the author is adding similar contents, talking about the benign and aggressive environment?

[Rover_KE]

It's a book for students who are preparing for an English exam. Does it have a title?

The author used 'on the contrary' but can I use 'besides' because the author is adding similar contents, talking about the benign and aggressive environment?

'Besides' would be incorrect here.

[andrewg927]

It a book for students who are preparing for an English exam.
The author used on the contrary but can I use besides because the author is adding similar contents, talking about the benign and aggressive environment? (Benign and aggressive are not similar)

Look at def. #11 under "idioms" for "on the contrary" and #1 and #2 for "besides". They mean completely different things.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/on--the--contrary?s=t
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/besides?s=t

Also def. #3 for "benign" and #1 for "aggressive."

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/benign?s=t
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/aggressive?s=t

[emsr2d2]

It a book for students who are preparing for an English exam.
The author used on the contary but can I use besides because the author is adding similar contents, talking about the benign and aggressive environment?

Then you need to give us the title and author of that "prep book".