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  3. The earliest discovered traces of art are beads and carvings, and then paintings, from sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithi

The earliest discovered traces of art are beads and carvings, and then paintings, from sites dating back to the Upper Paleolithi

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问题     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.
    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.
What makes some researchers think that certain cave paintings were connected with magical-religious activities?
选项 A、The paintings were located where many people could easily see them, allowing groups of people to participate in the magical-religious activities.
B、Upper Paleolithic people shared similar beliefs with contemporary peoples who use paintings of animals in their magical-religious rituals.
C、Evidence of magical-religious activities has been found in galleries immediately off the inhabited areas of caves.
D、The paintings were found in hard-to-reach places away from the inhabited parts of the cave.
答案D
解析 事实细节题。根据magical-religious activities定位至第二段的第3个分句。第二段是一句话，主要讲研究人员确定了西欧壁画的三个位置。其第3点提到，在洞穴深处，不容易到达，这被一些人看作是在那里进行神秘宗教活动的迹象。D项讲的是，这些壁画在洞穴中远离人类居住的区域，很难到达。与原文表述相符，故为答案。此处不是容易被很多人看到的地方，故排除A项；也不是靠近洞穴中人类居住位置的水平巷道，故排除C项。文中并未提及动物主题与神秘宗教活动的关系，故排除B项。
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