人们认为来自伦敦的一位家具管理员解开了冰河时期洞穴壁画里一系列标记的谜团。此发现有助于理解为什么当时的狩猎采集者会画洞穴壁画。

Archaeologists have long puzzled over series of dots, lines, and marks shaped like a letter 'Y', placed on or near the often-beautiful depictions of Palaeolithic animals in European caves – creatures like mammoths, bison and horses.

长期以来，考古学家一直对一系列点、线和形状像字母 “Y” 的标记感到困惑，这些点、线和标记多出现在欧洲洞穴中如猛犸象、野牛和马的美丽的旧石器时代动物壁画上方或附近。

Ben Bacon, an enthusiast, studied thousands of images – pursuing a theory the marks could depict a lunar calendar linked to the animal's life cycles. The branching 'Y' sign, he postulated, could mean giving birth.

本·培根是一位考古爱好者，他研究了数千幅壁画图像，并提出一种理论，即这些标记描绘了与动物生命周期有关的阴历。他推测，上方分支的 “Y” 形标记可能代表生育。

Bringing in academics and using statistical analysis, the team are shown striking correlations between the sequences and the months that such animals would have mated and given birth. They argue it's the first proto-writing system in human history.

通过邀请学术人员参与研究和使用统计分析，该考古团队发现，这些符号序列与动物的交配和分娩月份之间存在着显著的相关性。他们认为这是人类历史上第一套原始书写系统。

词汇表

archaeologists 考古学家
puzzled 困惑了
depictions 描绘
enthusiast 爱好者
lunar calendar 阴历
life cycles 生命周期
correlations 相关性
mated 交配了
proto-writing system 原始书写系统

阅读理解：请在读完上文后，回答下列问题。

1. What have archaeologists long puzzled over about Ice Age cave paintings?

2. Where have these marks been seen?

3. What did enthusiast Ben Bacon think the 'Y' sign might mean?

4. True or false? Ben Bacon thought the marks illustrated an animal's life cycle.

答案  

1. What have archaeologists long puzzled over about Ice Age cave paintings?
A series of dots, lines, and marks shaped like a letter 'Y'.

2. Where have these marks been seen?
These marks have been seen on or near the often-beautiful depictions of Palaeolithic animals in European caves.

3. What did enthusiast Ben Bacon think the 'Y' sign might mean?
He thought the 'Y' sign could mean giving birth.

4. True or false? Ben Bacon thought the marks illustrated an animal's life cycle.
False. Ben Bacon thought the marks could depict a lunar calendar linked to the animal's life cycles.