Question

The Art of the Elephants

If your cat walked across something you were painting and left footprints behind, would you consider your cat an artist? What if your bird held a colored pencil in its beak（喙） and painted on a piece of paper? Most people may think of animal art as a joke, but some people have been taking it very seriously.

Elephants were used for hundreds of years in Thailand’s logging industry(伐木业). They moved wood from forests in areas where there were no roads. At the beginning of this century, when the forests of Thailand began to quickly disappear, the government put a stop to logging. All of a sudden, many elephants in Thailand no longer had a way to make a living.

Some elephants were treated badly. Others had to try to live on their own and couldn’t find enough food to eat. There were once tens of thousands of elephants in Thailand. Today, there are less than five thousand. When two Russian American artists, Vitaly Komar and Alex Melamid, first heard about the troubled elephants in Thailand, they knew that something had to be done to forever change the way people treated Thai elephants. Then, they came up with an idea to help these elephants.

Komar and Melamid visited elephant camps in Thailand and began to show the elephant trainers how to teach the elephants to paint. At first, the trainers had to guide the elephants’ trunks. The elephants became more comfortable doing this with practice—and lots of sweet snacks—and finally started to paint on their own. The strange idea that Komar and Melamid had to save the elephants actually began to work. They even helped found several elephant art schools in Thailand and in other Asian countries. The elephants and their trainers go there to learn about painting and get supplies they need.

Today, people begin to buy elephant artworks from galleries(画廊) all around the world. Some are even willing to pay more than ＄2,000 for the works of the elephant artists! Some people compare the cheerful, brightly-colored artworks to the works of some great abstract(抽象地) painters. Some people are just happy to buy these special and original(原创地) artworks. Others think they are helping the troubled elephants in this way. The next time you see a piece of colorful abstract art, find out who the artist is. You just may be surprised at what you learn!

1.What may most people think of animal art?

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2.What did elephants do in Thailand’s logging industry?

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3.How many elephants are there in Thailand today?

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4.What was Komar and Melamid’s idea to help the elephants in Thailand?

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5.Please list one reason why people buy elephant artworks.

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1.Most people may think of animal art as a joke. 2.They moved wood from forests where there were no roads. 3.There are less than five thousand. 4.They showed elephants trainers how to teach e...

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