FCE Reading and Use of English Part One

Messages from the Stone Age

The incredible pre-historic Chauvet cave art in France is painted in 0 _____ colours and dates back to a period around thirty thousand years ago when early humans first started to create rock art. Although various 1 _____ of this art have been found in caves in Western Europe, very few people have seen the art at Chauvet because it is located 2 _____ inside an inaccessible underground cave system. Those who have seen it say that it is very impressive, showing animals 3 _____ horses, rhinos and cows, and that the artwork is good enough to 4 _____ modern compositions.

The first scientists to 5 _____ the Chauvet paintings missed some other important 6 _____ however. The walls of the cave are also marked with a series of lines and symbols, that were initially 7 _____ as insignificant. But recent research has suggested that these marks may represent humankind’s first steps towards the development of writing, which is 8 _____ people to rethink their ideas about when written communication first started.

0 - bright / fair / keen / sharp

1 - illustrations / models / cases / examples

2 - deep / thick / long / dense

3 - by means of / apart from / as well as / such as

4 - rival / compare / compete / oppose

5 - arrive / reach / meet / know

6 - instances / matters / details / issues

7 - believed / regarded / thought / agreed

8 - resulting / having / making / causing