教你五分钟搞定托福阅读考试中的代词指代题(2)

The principal difference between urban growth in Europe and in the North American colonies was the slow evolution of cities in the former and their rapid growth in the latter. In Europe they grew over a period of centuries form town economies to their present urban structures. In North America, they started as wilderness communities and developed to mature urbanism in little more than a century.

本题看似复杂，其实通过层层倒推，锁定目标词“cities”并不十分困难。

4、“单数复数都对应，主动被动要分清”。代词指代题中有一些常见陷阱，例如同时出现大量名词，有单数、有复数、有可数名词、也有不可数名词，让考生雾里看花;或是将前文中的主动句改写成后文的被动句，颠三倒四，让考生头晕脑胀。破解这种陷阱的手法其实很简单，无论怎样变化，代词指代总有一定之规，例如：

In the past, biologists considered mushrooms and other fungi as a type of non-free plant. Today, however, they are most commonly regarded as a separate kingdom of living things.

本题中就不宜直接使用前文提到的“主语带主语”原则。代词出现的语句是被动句，因此“they”不再指代前文主语，而是指代前文中的宾语。那么“they”指代“mushrooms and other fungi”还是“non-free plant”呢?考生不必感动彷徨无助，口诀中已经明确指出，代词的单复数必然与原词单复数一致，因此正确答案只能是“mushrooms and other fungi”。

5、“定位排除和代入，验证语意要记牢”。总而言之，代词指代题的解题步骤清晰明了：第一步定位文中代词，用上述方法搜索原词;第二步分析选项，排除位置和语意不符的词汇;第三步带入原句中简单翻译，进行验证。

考生务必注意，验证是十分必要的一步，也是保证冲刺满分的不二法门。一旦遇到拿不准的题目，只要花几秒钟时间将代词指代的成分带入原句中验证一下，真伪立辨，保证万无一失。