SSC English – Test 19

Read the passage carefully and choose best answer to each question out of four alternatives. By 1900 a modest collection of prehistoric European art had been gathered and classified as belonging either to the Palaeolithic or Neolithic eras, primeval periods labelled as such by Sir John Lubbock. Later archaeologists added a Mesolithic era in between. The stone figures and engraved fragments of ivory were baffling, because it seemed inconceivable that primitive nomads could have fashioned such objects with so much apparent skill. The discovery of decorated caves, beginning with Altamira in 1879, had opened new possibilities. At first the bison paintings were dismissed as being of recent vintage, but further discoveries such as Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles in Provence convinced sceptics that Palaeolithic man was an accomplished artist, and that these rock paintings and engravings survived from the Ice Age. One <strong>interpreter</strong>, Salomon Reinach, applied Sir James Frazer's concept of sympathetic magic, and, in 1903, suggested that the paintings were inspired by both hunting and fertility magic. His argument was based on the prevalence of food-animals in the paintings and the curious fact that so many of them were found in deep recesses of the caves or in places difficult to access. The fact that Australian aborigines also painted animals in secret places, and as acts of sympathetic magic, gave strength to his thesis. Reinach also alluded to totemism; concepts that were not mutually exclusive, magic and totemism seemed to be convincing explanations of the paintings.

What could be the most suitable title for the passage?

Read the passage carefully and choose best answer to each question out of four alternatives. By 1900 a modest collection of prehistoric European art had been gathered and classified as belonging either to the Palaeolithic or Neolithic eras, primeval periods labelled as such by Sir John Lubbock. Later archaeologists added a Mesolithic era in between. The stone figures and engraved fragments of ivory were baffling, because it seemed inconceivable that primitive nomads could have fashioned such objects with so much apparent skill. The discovery of decorated caves, beginning with Altamira in 1879, had opened new possibilities. At first the bison paintings were dismissed as being of recent vintage, but further discoveries such as Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles in Provence convinced sceptics that Palaeolithic man was an accomplished artist, and that these rock paintings and engravings survived from the Ice Age. One <strong>interpreter</strong>, Salomon Reinach, applied Sir James Frazer's concept of sympathetic magic, and, in 1903, suggested that the paintings were inspired by both hunting and fertility magic. His argument was based on the prevalence of food-animals in the paintings and the curious fact that so many of them were found in deep recesses of the caves or in places difficult to access. The fact that Australian aborigines also painted animals in secret places, and as acts of sympathetic magic, gave strength to his thesis. Reinach also alluded to totemism; concepts that were not mutually exclusive, magic and totemism seemed to be convincing explanations of the paintings.

What made skeptics to believe that Palaeolithic man was an accomplished artist?

Read the passage carefully and choose best answer to each question out of four alternatives. By 1900 a modest collection of prehistoric European art had been gathered and classified as belonging either to the Palaeolithic or Neolithic eras, primeval periods labelled as such by Sir John Lubbock. Later archaeologists added a Mesolithic era in between. The stone figures and engraved fragments of ivory were baffling, because it seemed inconceivable that primitive nomads could have fashioned such objects with so much apparent skill. The discovery of decorated caves, beginning with Altamira in 1879, had opened new possibilities. At first the bison paintings were dismissed as being of recent vintage, but further discoveries such as Font de Gaume and Les Combarelles in Provence convinced sceptics that Palaeolithic man was an accomplished artist, and that these rock paintings and engravings survived from the Ice Age. One <strong>interpreter</strong>, Salomon Reinach, applied Sir James Frazer's concept of sympathetic magic, and, in 1903, suggested that the paintings were inspired by both hunting and fertility magic. His argument was based on the prevalence of food-animals in the paintings and the curious fact that so many of them were found in deep recesses of the caves or in places difficult to access. The fact that Australian aborigines also painted animals in secret places, and as acts of sympathetic magic, gave strength to his thesis. Reinach also alluded to totemism; concepts that were not mutually exclusive, magic and totemism seemed to be convincing explanations of the paintings.

The discovery of decorated caves started with-