托福阅读常考话题及练习题推荐五：艺术（3）

1托福阅读常考话题：艺术练习题

►Paragraph 5：Hunting is a skill. Tracking, stalking, chasing, and killing the prey are difficult, sometimes dangerous activities. What if the process could be made easier—by art? In the early decades of the twentieth century, Abbé Henri Breuil argued that the cave paintings were all about “sympathetic magic. ” The artists strived diligently to make their animal images evocative and realistic because they were attempting to capture the spirit of their prey. What could have prompted their studious attention to making such naturalistic, recognizable images? According to Breuil, the artists may have believed that if a hunter were able to make a true likeness of some animal, then that animal was virtually trapped. Images, therefore, may have had the magical capacity to confer success or luck in the hunt.

10. The word “diligently” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. with no success

B. with talent and skill

C. with mixed results

D. with persistence and hard work

11. According to paragraph 5, Breuil proposed which of the following theories about the purpose of cave paintings?

A. They were used to teach young hunters the skills they needed to hunt.

B. They were images created to help people forget about the dangers and difficulties of their daily lives.

C. They were used in magic rituals to increase people’s understanding of the natural world.

D. They were meant to capture the spirits of animals and thus bring success in the hunt.

12. The word “prompted” in the passage is closest in meaning to

A. brought about

B. interfered with

C. increased

D. transformed

►Paragraph 4：Finally, we may doubt the notion that the Upper Paleolithic period was a paradise in which food came readily, leaving humans ample time to amuse themselves with art. ■ For Europe it was still the Ice Age. ■ An estimate of the basic level of sustenance then necessary for human survival has been judged at 2200 calories per day. ■ This consideration, combined with the stark emphasis upon animals in the cave art, has persuaded some archaeologists that the primary motive behind Paleolithic images must lie with the primary activity of Paleolithic people: hunting.■

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

Obtaining this level of nourishment from such a harsh environment must have consumed most of Paleolithic people’s time and attention.

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 express the most important ideas in the passage. Some answer choices 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.

There are a number of arguments against the idea that Paleolithic cave paintings were created for the sheer joy of painting

Answer Choices

A. It is generally agreed that art as imitation arose during the age of Classical Greece

B. Paleolithic artists often chose to paint pictures that were intended to frighten people

C. People in the Paleolithic era may not have time for art, and the placement of the paintings does not indicate that they were meant to be looked at

D. Paleolithic artists chose to represent only a small segment of the natural world, and their paintings were not always strict imitations of nature

E. Hunting was central to Paleolithic life, and animals are central to cave art, leading some to believe that the paintings were created to bring luck to hunters.

F. Humans were rarely the subjects of cave paintings because it was thought that capturing the image of a hunter would cause the hunter to be virtually trapped