ENG 103 Review Worksheet for Final Summer 2024

Section I: Reading (Total: 10 points)

Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow

Prehistoric Cave Paintings Took up to 20,000 Years to Complete

[1]
It may have taken Michelangelo four long years to paint his fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but
his earliest predecessors spent considerably longer perfecting their own masterpieces. Scientists have
discovered that prehistoric cave paintings took up to 20,000 years to complete. Rather than being created in one
session, as archaeologists previously thought, many of the works discovered across Europe were produced over
hundreds of generations, who added to, refreshed and painted over the original pieces of art.

[2]
Until now it has been extremely difficult to pinpoint when prehistoric cave paintings and carvings were
created, but a pioneering technique is allowing researchers to date cave art accurately for the first time and show
how the works were crafted over thousands of years. Experts now hope the technique will provide a valuable
insight into how early human culture developed and changed as the first modern humans moved across Europe
around 40,000 years ago.

[3]
Dr Alistair Pike, an archaeologist at Bristol University who is leading the research, said: The art gives us a
really intimate window into the minds of the individuals who produced it, but what we don’t know is exactly
which individuals they were as we don’t know exactly when the art was created. If we can date the art then we
can relate that to the artefacts we find in the ground and start to link the symbolic thoughts of these individuals
to where, when and how they were living.’

[4]
Hundreds of caves have been discovered across Europe with elaborate prehistoric paintings and carvings on
their walls. It is thought the designs, which often depict scenes of animals, were created up to 40,000 years ago
– sometime after humans began moving from southern Europe into northern Europe during the last ice age.

[5]
Traditional dating techniques have relied on carbon dating the charcoal and other pigment used in the
paintings, but this can be inaccurate as it only gives the date the charcoal was created not when the work was
crafted.’ When you go into these caves today there is still charcoal lying on the ground, so the artists at the time
could have been using old charcoal rather than making it fresh themselves,’ explained Dr Pike.

[6]
‘If this was the case, then the date for the painting would be very wrong. Taking samples for carbon dating
also means destroying a bit of these precious paintings because you need to take away a bit of the pigment. For
carvings, it is virtually impossible to date them as there is no organic pigment containing carbon at ail.’

[7]
The scientists have used their technique to date a series of famous Palaeolithic paintings in Altamira cave,
northern Spain. Known as the ‘Sistine Chapel of the Palaeolithic’, the elaborate works were thought to date
from around 14,000 years ago. But in research published by the Natural Environment Research Council’s new
website Planet Earth, Dr Pike discovered some of the paintings were between 25,000 and 35,000 years old. The
youngest paintings in the cave were 11,000 years old. Dr Pike said: ‘We have found that most of these caves
were not painted in one go, but the painting spanned up to 20,000 years. This goes against what the
archaeologists who excavated in the caves found. It is probably the case that people did not live in the caves
they painted. It seems the caves they lived in were elsewhere and there was something special about the painted
caves.’

[8]
Dr Pike and his team were able to date the paintings using a technique known as uranium series dating,
which was originally developed by geologists to date rock formations such as stalactites and stalagmites in
caves. As water seeps through a cave, it carries extremely low levels of dissolved radioactive uranium along
with the mineral calcium carbonate. Over time small amounts of calcium carbonate are deposited to form a hard
layer over the paintings and this layer also traps the uranium. Due to its radioactive properties, the uranium
slowly decays to become another element known as thorium. By comparing the ratio of uranium to thorium in
the thin layers on top of the cave art, the researchers were able to calculate the age of the paintings.

1. Find the word in the appropriate paragraph in the passage which best matches the meaning of each
word below. (0.5×5 = 2.5 points)

Paragraph 1 Ancestor

Paragraph 2 Identify

Paragraph 2 Understanding

Paragraph 4 Illustrate

Paragraph 5 Imprecise

2. Based on the information given in the passage, indicate whether the following statements are TRUE,
FALSE or NOT GIVEN and write T / F / NG next to the statements. (0.5×5 = 2.5 points)

a. Archeologists used to believe that prehistoric paintings were created in a single session. ____
b. Cave paintings of animals were created during the last ice age. _____
c. Carbon dating reveals the age of the charcoal used in the paintings. ____
d. The traditional carbon dating method does not destroy any part of the painting. ____
e. People used the painted caves as places of worship. _____

3. In 140-160 words, write a summary of the given passage. (5 points)

Section II: Essay Writing (Total: 15 points)