2016年专四英语阅读练习(含答案).doc

（一） People?have?been?painting?pictures?for?at?least30,000?years.?The?earliest?pictures?were?painted?bypeople?who?hunted?animals.?They?used?to?paintpictures?of?the?animals?they?wanted?to?catch?and?kill.Pictures?of?this?kind?have?been?found?on?the?walls?ofcaves?in?France?and?Spain.?No?one?knows?why?theywere?painted?there.?Perhaps?the?painters?thoughtthat?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?picturesas?kind?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?writingand?pictures?together.?When?an?important?person?died,?scenes?and?stories?from?his?life?werepainted?and?carved?on?the?walls?of?the?place?where?he?was?buried.?Some?of?these?pictures?arelike?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?ofwriting?simple.?The?ordinary?people?could?not?understand?it. By?the?year?1,000?BC,?people?who?lived?in?the?area?around?the?Mediterranean?Sea?haddeveloped?a?simpler?system?of?writing.?The?signs?they?used?were?very?easy?to?write,?and?therewere?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?formedthe?letters?of?the?Greek?alphabet.?The?Romans?copied?the?idea,?and?the?Roman?alphabet?isnow?used?all?over?the?world. These?days,?we?can?write?down?a?story,?or?record?information,?without?using?pictures.?But?westill?need?pictures?of?all?kinds:?drawing,?photographs,?signs?and?diagrams.?We?find?themeverywhere:?in?books?and?newspapers,?in?the?street