课程咨询

托福考试网 托福资料下载 托福资讯 0元讲座 水平测试

托福考试练习
新东方在线 > TOEFL > 托福阅读 > 正文
托福培训

扫码免费领资料

内含托福全科备考资料

更有免费水平测试及备考规划

托福培训

扫码关注掌握一手留学资讯

回复XDF免费水平测试

录播精讲 直播课HOT

托福阅读经典练习素材：忠于自然的艺术

2017-09-29 17:13:30来源：网络

　　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 o 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.

　　以上就是新东方在线托福网为你带来的托福阅读经典练习素材：忠于自然的艺术，更多精彩敬请关注新东方在线托福网。

本文关键字: 托福阅读经典练习素材 托福阅读素材

上一页 1 2 3 4 下一页

托福辅导

关注新东方在线托福

托福机经·Official题目练习

考前重点突破·听说读写海量资料

更多资料

关注新东方在线托福，
回复【XDF】获取大礼包

托福辅导
  • 1.打开手机微信【扫一扫】，识别上方二维码；
  • 2.点击【添加】，回复对应关键字领取学习资料。
更多>>
更多内容

免费获取托福备考大礼包

微信扫描下方二维码 立即领取

托福辅导
更多>>
更多公益讲座>>
更多>>
更多资料
托福TPO 托福听力练习 托福口语练习 托福阅读练习 托福写作练习
我要
反馈 返回
首页
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10