Lascaux Cave

By Selina Cooper

地理猶如一個奇妙的世界神奇而有趣，環境則猶如嬰兒生活的襁褓與搖籃。多學一點地理與環境知識，對自己做人處事，對自己的素質發展和能力提高都是非常必要的。

地理類文章一般涉及某個國家、地區、城鎮及河流、山脈、海洋等的地理位置以及與之相關的社會生活、社會風情、政治經濟、人文歷史、自然資源、文化習俗，以及文化遺產等方面的情況，相當一部分文章還附有圖表供理解或選擇。文章選材來源于英語國家的主要名勝；命題以細節題為主，有一定的主觀推斷題；涉及一定的地理常識或環保知識。閱讀此類文章時，要重點弄清楚各個地名、人名之間的相互關系和各個國家、地區或城鎮之間的地理方位。如果文章或試題有附圖或附表，一定要把附圖或附表看懂、看明白。附圖或附表的存在幫助我們更好地讀懂和理解文章。

Have you heard about Lascaux Cave?The cave is situated near a town called Montignac in south western France.Lascaux Cave was discovered in 1940 by four French boys who were exploring the countryside.They found the cave walls were covered with colorful paintings of horses,bulls,deer and other prehistoric animals.Scientists have worked out that the paintings are at least 17，000 years old.

Nobody is sure of the purpose of the cave.It might have been a spiritual place,where people came to pray in hope of hunting more food.Perhaps the cave was a meeting room and the ancient people thought it would be nice to decorate the walls.It has also been suggested that the images are an astronomical map which helped people calculate the seasons.It is amazing how the images survived for so long,completely untouched.

After the cave was discovered in the 1940s,millions of visitors started coming to see it.This changed the atmosphere inside the cave and a fungus（霉菌）started to grow,which began to destroy the o riginal images.Wisely,the French government or dered the cave to be closed in 1963.Nowadays,only scientists are allowed to see the real cave.They are still trying to stop the fungus from destroying the irreplaceable wall art.

To satisfy the tourists,an exact copy of the cave was created.The fake（偽造的）cave is very realistic,and the paintings are astonishing.When I was in France,I went to see the fake cave called LascauxⅡ.A tour guide explained how the prehistoric artists used natural minerals to create brown,black,red and other colors to paint the animals.They painted the animals to make them look like they are moving,which is a very clever technique.Lascaux Cave made me realize that even thousands of years ago people had built great civilizations.We can trace the roots of our current society all the way back to these ancient people.I think it's amazing!