时间:2018-12-07 作者:英语课 分类:人、艺术、世界


英语课

They are made up of dots and lines or abstract 1 shapes and patterns. Nothing in the natural world of the prehistoric 2 artist would have looked like this, or this. And, very often, these patterns are repeated or scattered 3 across more recognizable images in a seemingly 4 random 5 way. Here, the Pech Merel caves in France, the prehistoric artist has painted a splendid pair of horses. But, look. He's covered the image with a series of spots. It really is hard to see what a pattern of spots has got to do with the world of hunting.

Archaeologists realize they were as far away from understanding cave-painting as they had ever been. The obvious explanations, like the paintings having been created to represent things in the world or for hunting, would never unlock 6 the puzzle of these images. Because both of these theories missed the point, instead of explaining why people were painting images in caves, they should have been trying to solve the mystery of how we got the amazing ability to create images in the first place.

To be able to paint a picture or something, you first need to know what a picture is. And how could you know that if you've never seen one before? Henri Breuil himself realized that this was the heart of the problem.

He told the curious story of a Turkish man in the 19th century who was shown a picture, it was a picture of a horse. But the man was mystified. He'd no idea what he was looking at, because never in his life had he seen a picture before. This Turkish man, it seems, was a devout 7 Muslim. Now at its strictest, Islam forbids images of living creatures. So, here was someone apparently 8 who refused to believe that you could create an image of an animal in two-dimensions. He said he didn't recognize it was a horse because he couldn't move around it.

For us, looking at a painting as vivid as this one, it's almost impossible to believe, we can't imagine what it would be like not to understand what a picture was, that it can represent something in the world.

This is what it might look like for people who've never seen any pictures before, a collection of lines, colors, markings without any meaning.



1 abstract
adj.抽象的;n.摘要,梗概;vt.提取;摘录要点
  • He is an abstract painter.他是一个抽象派画家。
  • He made an abstract of a long article.他对一篇长文章做了摘要。
2 prehistoric
adj.(有记载的)历史以前的,史前的,古老的
  • They have found prehistoric remains.他们发现了史前遗迹。
  • It was rather like an exhibition of prehistoric electronic equipment.这儿倒像是在展览古老的电子设备。
3 scattered
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的
  • Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来,塞进文件夹里。
4 seemingly
adv.从表面上看起来,似乎是
  • Seemingly,we can do nothing to prevent this from happening.我们似乎没有什么办法阻止这件事发生。
  • For several seemingly interminable seconds no one spoke.有几秒钟没有人讲话,这几秒钟似乎十分漫长。
5 random
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动
  • The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
  • On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查,发现肉变质了。
6 unlock
v.启示,揭示,开...的锁
  • The border police required the traveler to unlock his luggage.边防警察要求旅客打开行李。
  • We heard somebody unlock the door.我们听见有人开门锁。
7 devout
adj.虔诚的,虔敬的,衷心的 (n.devoutness)
  • His devout Catholicism appeals to ordinary people.他对天主教的虔诚信仰感染了普通民众。
  • The devout man prayed daily.那位虔诚的男士每天都祈祷。
8 apparently
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
标签: 艺术 世界 art world
学英语单词
a mere pose
abt-letterer-siwe syndrome
aljs
ammunition ship
Barbados Basin
beat someone to his knees
belled-out cylindrical pile
biolights
black summer oil
Castagnaro
Chebyshev norm
chemotactic cytokine
chromoproteins
circular working section
class actions
Colmenar de Oreja
compound automatic air switch
corbyal
crystal press
Davisson coordinate
demonstrate
density wave theory
derivative action
dominant heredity
Dylewo
east-west plane
eich
electrolytic theory of dissociation
facimile crystallization
fagopyrixm
finish out
finish rate
fluid-bed dry scrubber
foresightful
fusters
go a-begging
gross value added
harbour tug
higden
high altitude communication satellite
high-duty iron
high-temperature and pressure electrochemistry
highmoritis
instrumental roles
kenyaite
lama ritual dances (tibet)
Lavoisierian
levelling control lever
loveabler
main profile
Massemen
mercury cells
musculus mastoidohumeralis
Mycococcus
NAD
nicotine bitartrate
nordstrom-robinson code
oilless bearing metal
oithona similis
on-court
onez
only yesterday
optical material
organo metallic chemistry
photoinduced carrier
plumbian
pneumotachygraph
protective design
Quarenta
racketiest
railroad crossbuck sign
reactor protection system buses
ream grab
reduction cure
rhagadia ani
secondary safety
semi-organic chemistry
shadowed
sit.
soap-mark
sous-rature
systemic lupus erythematosuss
the crack of doom
the International Monetary Fund
the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Thymine-2-desoxyriboside
timber export trade
Totes Geb.
transmission frame
Trifarcatoceras
trimethylglycocoll
Tubex
unspatial
wakashu
wehave
well found
white alder
with remuneration linked output
without scruple
wtb
xeq
zanco (mexico)