Lascaux Cave

By Selina Cooper

地理犹如一个奇妙的世界神奇而有趣，环境则犹如婴儿生活的襁褓与摇篮。多学一点地理与环境知识，对自己做人处事，对自己的素质发展和能力提高都是非常必要的。

地理类文章一般涉及某个国家、地区、城镇及河流、山脉、海洋等的地理位置以及与之相关的社会生活、社会风情、政治经济、人文历史、自然资源、文化习俗，以及文化遗产等方面的情况，相当一部分文章还附有图表供理解或选择。文章选材来源于英语国家的主要名胜；命题以细节题为主，有一定的主观推断题；涉及一定的地理常识或环保知识。阅读此类文章时，要重点弄清楚各个地名、人名之间的相互关系和各个国家、地区或城镇之间的地理方位。如果文章或试题有附图或附表，一定要把附图或附表看懂、看明白。附图或附表的存在帮助我们更好地读懂和理解文章。

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（伪造的）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!