首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Directions: Read the passage. Then answer the questions. Give yourself 20 minutes to complete this practice set.
Directions: Read the passage. Then answer the questions. Give yourself 20 minutes to complete this practice set.
admin
2014-09-29
28
问题
Directions: Read the passage. Then answer the questions. Give yourself 20 minutes to complete this practice set.
CAVE ART IN EUROPE
The earliest discovered traces of art are beads and carvings, and then paintings, from sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period. We might expect that early artistic efforts would be crude, but the cave paintings of Spain and southern France show a marked degree of skill. So do the naturalistic paintings on slabs of stone excavated in southern Africa. Some of those slabs appear to have been painted as much as 28,000 years ago, which suggests that painting in Africa is as old as painting in Europe. But painting may be even older than that. The early Australians may have painted on the walls of rock shelters and cliff faces at least 30,000 years ago, and maybe as much as 60,000 years ago.
The researchers Peter Ucko and Andree Rosenfeld identified three principal locations of paintings in the caves of western Europe:(1)in obviously inhabited rock shelters and cave entrances;(2)in galleries immediately off the inhabited areas of caves; and(3)in the inner reaches of caves, whose difficulty of access has been interpreted by some as a sign that magical-religious activities were performed there.
The subjects of the paintings are mostly animals. The paintings rest on bare walls, with no backdrops or environmental trappings. Perhaps, like many contemporary peoples, Upper Paleolithic men and women believed that the drawing of a human image could cause death or injury, and if that were indeed their belief, it might explain why human figures are rarely depicted in cave art. Another explanation for the focus on animals might be that these people sought to improve their luck at hunting. This theory is suggested by evidence of chips in the painted figures, perhaps made by spears thrown at the drawings. But if improving their hunting luck was the chief motivation for the paintings, it is difficult to explain why only a few show signs of having been speared. Perhaps the paintings were inspired by the need to increase the supply of animals. Cave art seems to have reached a peak toward the end of the Upper Paleolithic period, when the herds of game were decreasing.
The particular symbolic significance of the cave paintings in southwestern France is more explicitly revealed, perhaps, by the results of a study conducted by researchers Patricia Rice and Ann Paterson. The data they present suggest that the animals portrayed in the cave paintings were mostly the ones that the painters preferred for meat and for materials such as hides. For example, wild cattle(bovines)and horses are portrayed more often than we would expect by chance, probably because they were larger and heavier(meatier)than other animals in the environment. In addition, the paintings mostly portray animals that the painters may have feared the most because of their size, speed, natural weapons such as tusks and horns, and the unpredictability of their behavior. That is, mammoths, bovines, and horses are portrayed more often than deer and reindeer. Thus, the paintings are consistent with the idea that the art is related to the importance of hunting in the economy of Upper Paleolithic people. Consistent with this idea, according to the investigators, is the fact that the art of the cultural period that followed the Upper Paleolithic also seems to reflect how people got their food. But in that period, when getting food no longer depended on hunting large game animals(because they were becoming extinct), the art ceased to focus on portrayals of animals.
Upper Paleolithic art was not confined to cave paintings. Many shafts of spears and similar objects were decorated with figures of animals. The anthropologist Alexander Marshack has an interesting interpretation of some of the engravings made during the Upper Paleolithic. He believes that as far back as 30,000 B.C., hunters may have used a system of notation, engraved on bone and stone, to mark phases of the Moon. If this is true, it would mean that Upper Paleolithic people were capable of complex thought and were consciously aware of their environment. In addition to other artworks, figurines representing the human female in exaggerated form have also been found at Upper Paleolithic sites. It has been suggested that these figurines were an ideal type or an expression of a desire for fertility.
Directions: Now answer the questions.
The earliest discovered traces of art are beads and carvings, and then paintings, from sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithic period. We might expect that early artistic efforts would be crude, but the cave paintings of Spain and southern France show a
marked
degree of skill. So do the naturalistic paintings on slabs of stone excavated in southern Africa. Some of those slabs appear to have been painted as much as 28,000 years ago, which suggests that painting in Africa is as old as painting in Europe. But painting may be even older than that. The early Australians may have painted on the walls of rock shelters and cliff faces at least 30,000 years ago, and maybe as much as 60,000 years ago.
The word "
marked
" in the passage is closest in meaning to
选项
A、considerable
B、surprising
C、limited
D、adequate
答案
A
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/RTfO777K
0
托福(TOEFL)
相关试题推荐
Completethetablebelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.
Completethetablebelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.
Completethetablebelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.
Completethenotesbelow.WriteNOMORETHANTHREEWORDSforeachanswer.
A、Theimpactofenzymesonchemicalreactions.B、Thewaythebodyproducesenzymes.C、Thestructureofenzymes.D、Typesofchemi
A、Anewfuelforbuses.B、Thecausesofairpollution.C、Awaytoimprovefuelefficiencyinbuses.D、Careersinenvironmentale
A、Judgingpeople’sbehavior.B、Commoncausesofanger.C、Changingpeople’sattitudes.D、Theeffectsofnegativebehavior.AWhat?
A、IthasnumeroustraitsincommonwiththespottedowlB、ItspopulationisincreasingC、Itmaynotsurvivewithoutspecialeffo
随机试题
在政策执行中“挂羊头,卖狗肉”、“上有政策,下有对策”的行为,属于政策执行偏差中的()
还盘:
关于重症胰腺炎的病因,正确的是
放疗过程不包括
子宫脱垂患者,宫颈及部分宫体脱出阴道口,应属:
斜坡堤堤心石抛石时,抛填方块前应先安放压边方块。实际边线与设计边线间的偏差不应大于()。
货币市场所流通的金融工具的期限一般为()。
某玩具店同时卖出一个拼装玩具和一架遥控飞机,拼装玩具66元,遥控飞机120元,拼装玩具赚了10%,而遥控飞机亏本20%,则这个商店卖出这两个玩具赚钱或是亏本多少?()
以下对数据库故障的描述中,不正确的是_________。
Throughouthistory,humanshavesufferedfromaconditionthattheyhaveneverbeenabletoescape—ageing.Someresearchers,how
最新回复
(
0
)