托福阅读常考话题及练习题推荐一：艺术（3）

1托福阅读常考话题：艺术练习题

►Paragraph 4: 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.

9.According to paragraph 4, scholars believe that wild cattle, horses, and mammoths are the animals most frequently portrayed in cave paintings for all of the following reasons EXCEPT:

A. These animals were difficult to hunt because their unpredictable behavior.

B. People preferred these animals for their meat and for their skins.

C. The painters admired the beauty of these large animals.

D. People feared these animals because of their size and speed.

10.According to paragraph 4, which of the following may best represent the attitude of hunters toward deer and reindeer in the Upper Paleolithic period?

A. Hunters did not fear deer and reindeers as much as they did large game animals such as horses and mammoths.

B. Hunters were not interested in hunting deer and reindeer because of their size and speed.

C. Hunters preferred the meat and hides of deer and reindeer to those of other animals.

D. Hunters avoided deer and reindeer because of their natural weapons, such as horns.

11.According to paragraph 4, what change is evident in the art of the period following the Upper Paleolithic?

A. This new art starts to depict small animals rather than large ones.

B. This new art ceases to reflect the ways in which people obtained their food.

C. This new art no longer consists mostly of representations of animals.

D. This new art begins to show the importance of hunting to the economy.

►Paragraph 5: 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.

12.According to paragraph 5, which of the following has been used as evidence to suggest that Upper Paleolithic people were capable of complex thought and conscious awareness of their environment?

A. They engraved animal figures on the shafts of spears and other objects.

B. They may have used engraved signs to record the phases of the Moon.

C. Their figurines represented the human female in exaggerated form.

D. They may have used figurines to portray an ideal type or to express a desire for fertility.

►Paragraph 3: 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. ■

13.Look at the four squares [■] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage.

Therefore, if the paintings were connected with hunting, some other explanation is needed.

Where would the sentence best fit?

14.Directions: An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that explain the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.

Upper Paleolithic cave paintings in Western Europe are among humanity’s earliest artistic efforts.

Answer choices

A. Researchers have proposed several different explanations for the fact that animals were the most common subjects in the cave paintings.

B. The art of the cultural period that followed the Upper Paleolithic ceased to portray large game animals and focused instead on the kinds of animals that people of that period preferred to hunt.

C. Some researchers believe that the paintings found in France provide more explicit evidence of their symbolic significance than those found in Spain, southern Africa, and Australia.

D. The cave paintings focus on portraying animals without also depicting the natural environments in which these animals are typically found.

E. Some researchers have argued that the cave paintings mostly portrayed large animals that provided Upper Paleolithic people with meat and materials.

F. Besides cave paintings, Upper Paleolithic people produced several other kinds of artwork, one of which has been thought to provide evidence of complex thought.