时间:2018-12-07 作者:英语课 分类:人、艺术、世界


英语课

Now if you can't understand what a picture is unless you've seen one before. How on earth do you come up with the idea of creating one in the first place?

So how did our ancient ancestors come to realize that a collection of lines, dots and colors could represent something? How did the penny drop all those thousands of years ago? This is one of the great mysteries of human creativity. It's one that experts have long tried and failed to solve. But then a few years ago, a revolutionary idea appeared. It was an idea that might solve this very problem. And it originated 1 not in Europe but a place thousands of miles away. It came from South Africa. Hidden among high crags of these mountains, the Drakensberg are images on rock walls uncannily like European cave paintings. They, too, feature large animals and they also seem to show hunting scenes. But unlike the European paintings, these pictures aren't thousands of years old. They were painted just a couple of hundred years ago, almost within living memory. They were painted by people called the San --the Bushman. For a long time, these paintings were largely 2 ignored. But one man became fascinated 3 by them. His name was David Lewis Williams.

When I first started looking at the paintings, the general opinion was that they were scenes from daily life and because they were San people, they thought they were hunting scenes. Take this one as an example. Here we have an eland and a man who appears to be holding the eland's tail. (Yeah, yep). People thought well maybe when eland were hunted by Bushman, they pulled its tail as a demonstration 4 of being very brave, or something like that. But when you begin to look more closely 5 at the painting, you begin to find point after point that just doesn't add up. For example this man, here you see, has got hoofs 6 and not feet. "Yeah. Yeah."

So, had no one noticed that these were hoofs before?

I didn't get anybody stuck the head under there to notice it. No. Er, and then of course there're things about the man himself. His legs are crossed and the eland's legs are crossed. And then you notice other things, like that one, higher up there, that has a very clear antelope 7 head. (Yeah.) And then you realize that he's also got hairs standing 8 on end all over its body. And the eland has got hairs standing all over its body.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
words:

on end: (stand) erectly, relentless 竖直地,连续的
hairs stand on end毛发竖起



1 originated
v.起源于,来自,产生( originate的过去式和过去分词 );创造;创始;开创
  • The disease is thought to have originated in the tropics. 这种疾病据说起源于热带地区。
  • The art of portrait miniatures was originated in England. 微型画像艺术创始于英国。 来自《简明英汉词典》
2 largely
adv.大部分,主要地
  • It is largely dependent on the weather.这多半取决于天气情况。
  • Their conclusions were largely founded on guesswork.他们的结论大部份基于猜测。
3 fascinated
a.被强烈地吸引住,感到着迷的
  • China has always fascinated me. 中国一直令我心驰神往。
  • The children watched, fascinated, as the picture began to appear. 电影开始以后孩子们入迷地观看着。
4 demonstration
n.表明,示范,论证,示威
  • His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
  • He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。
5 closely
adv.紧密地;严密地,密切地
  • We shall follow closely the development of the situation.我们将密切注意形势的发展。
  • The two companies are closely tied up with each other.这两家公司之间有密切联系。
6 hoofs
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 )
  • The stamp of the horse's hoofs on the wooden floor was loud. 马蹄踏在木头地板上的声音很响。 来自辞典例句
  • The noise of hoofs called him back to the other window. 马蹄声把他又唤回那扇窗子口。 来自辞典例句
7 antelope
n.羚羊;羚羊皮
  • Choosing the antelope shows that China wants a Green Olympics.选择藏羚羊表示中国需要绿色奥运。
  • The tiger was dragging the antelope across the field.老虎拖着羚羊穿过原野。
8 standing
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。
标签: 艺术 世界 art world
学英语单词
acft
additional document
alar plate
anachitis
anhydrous sodium sulfate
audio-recording
bilithic filter
bowyang
braeden
bulletheads
cellular sheet pile wharf
choosest
chromoneucleoprotein
chrysemys pictas
Consumer Reports
coppice-wood
coral spot
cordierite-anthophyllite rock
crack border
cylic compound
denumerable at infinity
Dictyodrama
Dihydrocoumarone
duncer
error routine address
family Ascaphidae
finger buff
finger-pick
follow feed
football leagues
fuel knock
gabeller
Geneva Bureau
gigabarrels
gished
heavyhanded
homentropic
incestous
incremental pricing
indol(e)amine
indolic
initial free volume
inverse suppressor
jeanbandyite
key schedule
knot-head
light-weight concrete
liquor sauce
longisporin
Lord President of the Court of Session
macro-cracks
magnetic detent
megamonuments
microcosmographic
need it!
nongeriatric
nonzero queue
one's word is as good as one's bond
paediatric psychopharmacology
pareucalanus sewelli
party to a case
penis palmatus
perpendicular susceptibility
pet subject
piscinest
plain snap gauge
plug and chug
plug-finishing bur
poeciloblast
polyimidoylamidine
Posang-ni
proportion of resin present
providers
RAM refresh operation
rauning
reaction control
return flow line
round bordered pit
rug? vaginales
saddle coil magnet
Samut Songkhram, Changwat
Sepyron
Silfiac
spinal lemniscus
stabilizing tester
starting torque in air
static memory interface
stellaria uliginosa murr.var. undulata franch. et sav.
swifterly
sy
the fag end of sth
threofuranoside
tocofersolan
trade identity
transition transient
Triodanis perfoliata
uncarboxylated
under water fittings
unequaladdendum system
venae spinales externae posteriores
William Caxton
willians