The cave paintings of Lascaux (in southwestern France) date to around 15,000 B.C.E. and are among the finest examples of prehistoric art known. Ever since the paintings were discovered, scholars have puzzled over their purpose. According to one widely discussed interpretation, the paintings were made to ensure a successful hunt. Several considerations support this view.
In the first place, there is the animal subject matter of the paintings. The cave images are almost exclusively of large mammals. These animals include bison, wild horses, and now-extinct aurochs (wild cattle), which are known to have been hunted by the Paleolithic people who created the paintings. A number of the animals are shown wounded by arrows and spears. There are also depictions of what appears to be the seasonal migrations of these animals that would have been very important to prehistoric hunters.
Second, the depictions of humans in the cave paintings include human figures that appear to have animal heads. These could be hunters: hunters in some traditional cultures are known to disguise themselves with animal heads so that they are not recognized by the animals they are hunting.
Third, many cultures hold the belief that by depicting an event one can bring about its reality. Throughout history—prehistoric, ancient, and modern—images have been regarded as more than mere decorative representations; they are seen as having magical power to affect reality. Thus, it is reasonable to suppose that the hunters who created the Lascaux cave paintings believed that by painting successful hunts, they were ensuring that real hunts would be successful.
According to the passage, it is believed that the cave paintings of Lascaux serve the purpose of assuring a successful hunt. However, the lecturer disagrees with this idea and raises evidence for each point made in the article.
First of all, the reading suggests that animals in the paintings are wounded by spears, which are indications of possible hunting of these animals. But the professor in the lecture opposes the notion, holding that some animals shown on the paintings are not even hunted, for example, rats. Moreover, he claims that rain deers supposed to be hunted are not painted, and there is only a small percent of animals got hurt by spears.
Secondly, the passage maintains that humans appear in the paintings are in animal heads, who could be hunters that utilize the heads as disguises. As opposed to the assumption, the lecturer refutes that the humans in the animal heads are not likely to be hunters, since they are not displayed as they were hunting, for they are all in a relaxing position like sitting.
Thirdly, the author of the article states that hunters create paintings to manifest the success of real hunts, as lots of cultures believe that one can bring about the reality of the event by depicting it. This is also rejected by the professor in the listening, saying that the paintings does not necessarily convey the same meaning as the passage states. Instead, it may serve another magic purpose that humans back then wanted to establish communications with their ancestors in this way, so the paintings could be used in a ceremony.
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Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, but, first, however, if, may, moreover, second, secondly, so, then, third, thirdly, for example, first of all
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 16.0 10.4613686534 153% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 4.0 5.04856512141 79% => OK
Conjunction : 3.0 7.30242825607 41% => More conjunction wanted.
Relative clauses : 13.0 12.0772626932 108% => OK
Pronoun: 23.0 22.412803532 103% => OK
Preposition: 36.0 30.3222958057 119% => OK
Nominalization: 3.0 5.01324503311 60% => More nominalizations (nouns with a suffix like: tion ment ence ance) wanted.
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1312.0 1373.03311258 96% => OK
No of words: 267.0 270.72406181 99% => OK
Chars per words: 4.9138576779 5.08290768461 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.04229324003 4.04702891845 100% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.49934272946 2.5805825403 97% => OK
Unique words: 152.0 145.348785872 105% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.569288389513 0.540411800872 105% => OK
syllable_count: 404.1 419.366225166 96% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.5 1.55342163355 97% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 4.0 3.25607064018 123% => OK
Article: 5.0 8.23620309051 61% => OK
Subordination: 3.0 1.25165562914 240% => Less adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 2.0 1.51434878587 132% => OK
Preposition: 2.0 2.5761589404 78% => OK
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 10.0 13.0662251656 77% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 26.0 21.2450331126 122% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 34.4535919753 49.2860985944 70% => OK
Chars per sentence: 131.2 110.228320801 119% => OK
Words per sentence: 26.7 21.698381199 123% => OK
Discourse Markers: 11.5 7.06452816374 163% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 0.0 4.19205298013 0% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 3.0 4.33554083885 69% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 4.0 4.45695364238 90% => OK
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.27373068433 70% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.137910404645 0.272083759551 51% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.0570867400201 0.0996497079465 57% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0522342710539 0.0662205650399 79% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.0837132896927 0.162205337803 52% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0330504124782 0.0443174109184 75% => OK
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 15.0 13.3589403974 112% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 53.55 53.8541721854 99% => OK
smog_index: 3.1 5.55761589404 56% => Smog_index is low.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 12.3 11.0289183223 112% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.49 12.2367328918 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.01 8.42419426049 107% => OK
difficult_words: 69.0 63.6247240618 108% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 9.0 10.7273730684 84% => OK
gunning_fog: 12.4 10.498013245 118% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.2008830022 107% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.