托福閱讀詞匯題目考點(diǎn)解析（二）

Spartina was transported to Washington State in packing materials for oysters transplanted from the east coast in 1894. Leaving its insect predators behind, the cordgrass has been spreading slowly and steadily along Washington’s tidal estuaries on the west coast, crowding out the native plants and drastically altering the landscape by trapping sediment. Spartina modifies tidal mudflats, turning them into high marshes inhospitable to the many fish and waterfowl that depend on the mudflats. It is already hampering the oyster harvest and the Dungeness crab fishery, and it interferes with the recreational use of beaches and waterfronts. Spartina has been transplanted to England and to New Zealand for land reclamation and shoreline stabilization. In New Zealand the plant has spread rapidly, changing mudflats with marshy fringes to extensive salt meadows and reducing the number and kinds of birds and animals that use the marsh.
　　The word modifies" in the passage is closest in meaning to
　　O creates
　　O changes
　　O grows on
　　O breaks down
　　解析：托福閱讀詞匯一中我們通過(guò)“詞綴”法進(jìn)行了解題。而這一題我們通過(guò)另外一種方法：“近義詞”法。 “近義詞”是通過(guò)閱讀上下文，確定原文里某一個(gè)詞跟目標(biāo)詞的近義關(guān)系，而進(jìn)行解題。我們通過(guò)分析上文，可以確定turning them into high marshes inhospitable to the many fish and waterfowl that depend on the mudflats 是修飾前面的整個(gè)句子，對(duì)前面的整個(gè)句子進(jìn)行補(bǔ)充說(shuō)明；而“them”又是指代 “mudflats”, 由此我們可以確定 “modify” 應(yīng)當(dāng) 跟”turn …. Into…”意思相近。所以答案是第二個(gè)。