About 5,000 years ago, the Egyptians and other people in the Near East began to use pictures as kind of writing. They drew simple pictures or signs to represent things and ideas, and also to represent the sounds of their language. The signs these people used became a kind of alphabet.

The Egyptians used to record information and to tell stories by putting picture writing and pictures together. When an important person died, scenes and stories from his life were painted and carved on the walls of the place where he was buried. Some of these pictures are like 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 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 a simpler system of writing. The signs they used were very easy to write, and there were 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 formed the letters of the Greek alphabet. 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 still need pictures of all kinds: drawing, photographs, signs and diagrams. We find them everywhere: in books 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 story much 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

答案解析：

1. D) 根據(jù)文章第一段第五行“Perhaps the painters thought that their pictures would help them to catch these animals.”可知古代人以為在墻上畫畫會對他們有所幫助，故選項(xiàng)D為正確答案。

2. C) 在做此類題時要注意題干的要求。通過閱讀文章第四段很清楚就知道選項(xiàng)C “前者容易發(fā)音”在文中沒有提及，故為正確答案。

3. A) 可用排除法來做本題。通過閱讀文章很清楚選項(xiàng)B和D為錯誤陳述。選項(xiàng)C “羅馬字母是從埃及字母發(fā)展而來的”根據(jù)文章第四段第四，五句可知為錯誤論述，因此只有選項(xiàng)A為正確答案。

4. C) 文章最后一段講述了圖畫在今天的用途，故選項(xiàng)C為正確答案

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