2017英语专四阅读理解练习（二十二）

2017英语专四阅读理解练习（二十二）

　　People have been paintingpictures for at least 30,000 years. The earliest pictures were painted by people who huntedanimals. They used to paint pictures of the animals they wanted to catch and kill. Pictures of thiskind have been found on the walls of caves in France and Spain. No one knows why they werepainted there. Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch theseanimals. 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 askind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also torepresent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind ofalphabet.The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture writing andpictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were paintedand carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like moderncomic strip stories. It has been said that Egypt is the home of the comic strip. But, for theEgyptians, 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 asimpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were fewer ofthem than in the Egyptian system. This was because each sign, or letter, represented only onesound in their language. The Greeks developed this system and formed the letters of the Greekalphabet. 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 stillneed pictures of all kinds: drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams. We find them everywhere: inbooks 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 storymuch 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：1.A 2.C 3.D 4.C

专四专八精选好课 暖心助学

新东方好老师 手把手带学