Question

【題目】As people have accurately observed，smiles are absent from early photographs. In 1852，for instance，a girl sat for her Daguerrotype，her head slightly turned，giving the camera an unsmiling look. She is preserved forever as a very serious girl indeed. Charles Darwin，a loving and playful parent，looks frozen in photographs. Why did our ancestors，from unknown sitters for family portraits(肖像畫) to the great and famous，because so sad in front of the camera?

The severity is everywhere in Victorian photographs. However，you don’t have to look very long at these unsmiling old photos to see how incomplete the seemingly obvious answer is-that they are freezing their faces in order to keep still for the long exposure times. In Julia Margaret Cameron’s Portrait of Tennyson，the poet dreams，his face a shadowed mask of genius. This is not simply a technique. It’s an emotional choice.

People in the past did not go around in a continual state of sorrow. In fact，the Victorians had a sense of humor even about the darkest aspects of their society. Laughter was not just common in the past but accepted by society far more than it is today，from medieval carnivals(中世紀(jì)狂歡節(jié)) to Georgian print shops，where people gathered to look at the latest funnies. Far from preventing festivals and fun，the Victorians，who invented photography，also created Christmas as a celebration as it is today. So the severity of people in the 19th-century photographs cannot be the evidence of generalized sadness. This was not a society in permanent desperation. Instead，the true answer has to do with attitudes to portraiture itself.

People who sat for early photographs understood it as a significant moment. Sitting for the camera was cheaper，quicker and meant that people who never had a chance to be painted could now be photographed; but people seemed to have taken it seriously in the same way they would be a painted portrait. Like a portrait painting，it was intended as a timeless record of a person.

To me those unsmiling people probably had as much fun as we do，if not more. But they felt no need to prove it with pictures. Instead，when whey sat for a photograph，they thought about time，death and memory. Perhaps we should stop smiling sometimes，too.

【1】What do we know about the people in Victorian times?

A． They laid importance on religious events.

B． They were skillful at portrait painting.

C． They valued their family life.

D． They enjoyed themselves.

【2】The author mentions Portrait of Tennyson in Paragraph 2 to__________.

A． prove a theory

B． support his opinion

C． introduce a painting

D． describe a technique

【3】The author thinks early people look frozen in old photos because____．

A． they lived in a traditional society

B． they had to stay still for a long time

C． they regarded photography important

D． they held negative views about painting

【4】What is the author’s attitude towards people not smiling in old photos?

A． Skeptical.

B． Critical.

C． Neutral.

D． Positive.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】D

【2】B

【3】C

【4】D

【解析】

【1】此題用排除法解決。文章主要是在第二段以及第三段中講述了維多利亞時(shí)期人們的情況。A.他們很重視宗教活動(dòng)，但從文章的第三段的內(nèi)容看來，只是提到了他們?cè)谶^各種的節(jié)日的的時(shí)候都是自娛自樂，玩得很開心，并沒有強(qiáng)調(diào)宗教的重要性，故不選；B.他們?cè)诶L畫肖像的時(shí)候很有技巧，文章沒有提到這一點(diǎn)；C.他們很重視家庭生活，文章也沒有提這個(gè)觀點(diǎn)；故綜上所述，可知D選項(xiàng)正確。

【2】在第二段的首句中，作者就表明了這段的主題。為了證明他的觀點(diǎn)，他就描述了著名的詩人Tennyson的肖像畫中所表露的神情。故選B。

【3】此題有些考生會(huì)誤選了B，其中的原因是受到了第二段中的一句“they are freezing their faces in order to keep still for the long exposure times”的影響。但實(shí)際上，本句并不是當(dāng)時(shí)的人在照相的時(shí)候表情僵硬的主要原因�？忌�需要繼續(xù)往下讀，從第四段的內(nèi)容才能理解到，當(dāng)時(shí)的人們都認(rèn)為照相是一件重要的事情” People who sat for early photographs understood it as a significant moment”,因此，他們要嚴(yán)肅地對(duì)待。根據(jù)這個(gè)分析，可知選C正確。

【4】Skeptical懷疑的；Critical批評(píng)的；Neutral中立的；Positive積極地，正面的。由本文最后一段的內(nèi)容理解，尤其是最后一句，看出作者從當(dāng)時(shí)的人的角度去思考和分析為什么他們照相的時(shí)候表情僵硬，可知作者對(duì)他們當(dāng)時(shí)的處境是理解并且贊同的，故選C。