原题再现

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
creates
changes
grows on
breaks down

答案解析
解析：托福阅读词汇一中我们通过“词缀”法进行了解题。而这一题我们通过另外一种方法：“近义词”法。 “近义词”是通过阅读上下文，确定原文里某一个词跟目标词的近义关系，而进行解题。我们通过分析上文，可以确定turning them into high marshes inhospitable to the many fish and waterfowl that depend on the mudflats 是修饰前面的整个句子，对前面的整个句子进行补充说明；而“them”又是指代 “mudflats”, 由此我们可以确定 “modify” 应当 跟”turn …. Into…”意思相近。所以答案是第二个。