阅读理解
People have been
painting pictures for at least 30, 000 years. The earliest pictures were
painted by people who hunted animals. They used to paint pictures of the
animals they wanted to catch and kill. Pictures of this kind have been found on
the walls of caves in France and Spain. No one knows why they were painted
there. Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to
catch these animals. Or perhaps human beings have always wanted to tell stories
in pictures.
About 5,000 years ago,
the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind
of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas,
and also to represent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used
became a kind of alphabet. The Egyptians used to record information and to tell
stories by putting picture writing and pictures together. When an important
person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the
walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like modern
comic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic
strip. But, for the Egyptians, pictures still had magic power. So they did not
try to make their way of writing simple. The ordinary people could not
understand it.
By the year 1,000 BC,
people who lived in the area around the Mediterranean Sea had developed a
simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and
there were fewer of them than in the Egyptian system. This was because each
sign, or letter, represented only one sound in their language. The Greeks
developed this system and formed the letters of the Greek alphabet. The Romans
copied the idea, and the Roman alphabet is now used all over the world.
These days, we can
write down a story, or record information, without using pictures. But we still
need pictures of all kinds: drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams. We find
them everywhere: in books and newspapers, in the street, and on the walls of
the places where we live and work. Pictures help us to understand and remember
things more easily, and they can make a story much more interesting.
(1)
Pictures of animals were painted on the walls of caves in France and Spain because ________.
A . the hunters wanted to see the pictures
B . the painters were animal lovers
C . the painters wanted to show imagination
D . the pictures were thought to be helpful
(2)
The Greek alphabet was simpler than the Egyptian system for all the following reasons EXCEPT that ________.
A . the former was easy to write
B . there were fewer signs in the former
C . the former was easy to pronounce
D . each sign stood for only one sound
(3)
Which of the following statements is TRUE?
A . The Egyptian signs later became a particular alphabet.
B . The Egyptians liked to write comic strip stories.
C . The Roman alphabet was developed from the Egyptian one.
D . The Greeks copied their writing system from the Egyptians.
(4)
In the last paragraph, the author thinks that pictures ________.
A . should be made comprehensible
B . should be made interesting
C . are of much use in our life
D . have disappeared from our life
答案: D
C
A
C