Practice Test: Reading Comprehension - 38 | 100 RCs for GMAT PDF Download

Directions: Read the given passage carefully and answer the questions as follows:

Archaeologists working in two recently discovered limestone caves in Sarawak, Malaysia have found a surprising collection of 51 paintings estimated to be 6,000 to 12,000 years old. The paintings are unusual in their medium, manner of display, and subject matter. These are not simply wall or ceiling paintings. Stones—some as small as notebooks, some as large as doors—have been chipped and otherwise shaped to form rough canvases on which are painted individual works. Some of the pieces are stacked, while others are arranged upright in an overlapping pattern so that one can “flip through” the smaller pieces in the collection with relative ease. Hunters, warriors, and hunted animals, the typical subjects of cave art, are largely absent from these works. Instead, domestic scenes are represented, including food preparations, family meals, and recreational activities. 

Though no tools have been found in the area, the fineness of the lines suggests the use of sophisticated animal-hair brushes. Gypsum, manganese, malachite, and other minerals were painstakingly ground and mixed with binding materials such as vegetable and animal oils to form the paints. In some cases, the artist or artists (Dr. Linus Mendoza of the International Speleologist Association has studied the paintings and believes that stylistic similarities and differences point to the work of three artists) have removed the patina surrounding the intended figures, producing a negative image. One probable reason for the high level of artistry is that the paintings may have been produced in the open air, where the light was good, and then brought into the cave.

However, it is the purpose of the paintings that is the most curious. Conventional wisdom holds that the hunting scenes found in cave art were meant to provide super-natural aid during actual hunts, or that figures and designs were painted by prehistoric shamans as a way of drawing power from the cave itself. It may also be that the scenes of domestic life are, like representations of hunting, meant to ensure good luck. Though facial features are rarely distinct, the paintings do suggest contentedness, or at least an absence of conflict. Most tantalizingly, it may be that the collection represents a sort of family tree. A number of the paintings appear to feature some of the same people, and it is tempting to think of these works as family portraits. Indeed, one figure, seen as a child with a mark on its forehead—the stone has actually been chipped away to represent the mark—is shown in other paintings as a young person and as an adult with the same mark.