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As a historian who’s always searching for the text or the image that makes us re-evaluate the past, I』ve become preoccupied with looking for photographs that show our Victorian ancestors smiling (what better way to shatter the image of 19th-century prudery?). I』ve found quite a few, and-since I started posting them on Twitter-they have been causing quite a stir. People have been surprised to see evidence that Victorian had fun and could and did, laugh. They are noting that the Victorians suddenly seem to become more human as the hundred-or-so years that separate us fade away through our common experience of laughter.
Of course, I need to concede that my collections of 「Smiling Victorians」 makes up only a tiny percentage of the vast catalogue of photographic portraiture created between 1840 and 1900, the majority of which show sitters posing miserably and stiffly in front of painted backdrops, or staring absently into the middle distance. How do we explains this trend?
During the 1840s and 1850s, in the early days of photography, exposure times were notoriously long: the daguerreotype photographic method (producing an image on a silvered copper plate) could take several minutes to complete, resulting in blurred images as sitters shifted position or adjusted their limbs. The thought of holding a fixed grin as the camera performed its magical duties was too much to contemplate, and so a non-committal blank stare became the norm.
But exposure times were much quicker by the 1880s, and the introduction of the Box Brownie and other portable cameras meant that, though slow by today’s digital standards, the exposure was almost instantaneous. Spontaneous smiles were relatively easy to capture by the 1890s, so we must look elsewhere for an explanation of why Victorians still hesitated to smile.
One explanation might be the loss of dignity displayed through a cheesy grin. 「Nature gave us lips to conceal our teeth,」 ran one popular Victorian saying, alluding to the fact that before the birth of proper dentistry, mouths were often in a shocking state of hygiene. A flashing set of healthy and clean, regular 『pearly whites』 was a rare sight in Victorian society, the preserve of the super-rich (and even then, dental hygiene was not guaranteed).
A toothy grin (especially when there were gaps or blackened teeth) lacked class: drunks, tramps and music hall performers might gurn and grin with a smile as wide as Lewis Carroll’s gum-exposing Cheshire Cat, but it was not a becoming look for properly bred persons. Even Mark Twain, a man who enjoyed a hearty laugh, said that when it came to photographic portraits there could be 「nothing more damning than a silly, foolish smile fixed forever」.
31. According to Paragraph1, the author’s posts on Twitter
A. changed people’s impression of the Victorians.
B. highlighted social media’s role in Victorian studies.
C. re-evaluated the Victorians』 notion of public image.
D. illustrated the development of Victorian photography.
32. What does author say about the Victorian portraits he has collected?
A. They are in popular use among historians.
B. They are rare among photographs of that age.
C. They mirror 19th-century social conventions.
D. They show effects of different exposure times.
33. What might have kept the Victorians from smiling for pictures in the 1890s?
A. Their inherent social sensitiveness.
B. Their tension before the camera.
C. Their distrust of new inventions.
D. Their unhealthy dental condition.
34. Mark Twain is quoted to show that the disapproval of smiles in picture was
A. a deep-root belief.
B. a misguided attitude.
C. a controversial view.
D. a thought-provoking idea.
35. Which of the following question does the text answer?
A. Why did most Victorians look stern in photographs?
B. Why did the Victorians start to view photographs?
C. What made photography develop slowly in the Victorian period?
D. How did smiling in photographs become a post-Victorian norm?
[正確答案] 31. A 32. B 33. D 34. A 35. A
[解析]
31. 通過題幹定位詞，可以定位至首段的首句，首句中 「show that...」 從句中表明作者的觀點，於是關鍵詞應為 Victorian ancestors smiling, 而接下來緊接著論述people have been surprised that ...該句證明人們對於Victorians 的印象在看到作者的照片之前是不一樣的，因此才會感到吃驚。而幹擾選項，B，social media, 文中並未提到， C選項中 說的是Victorian’s notion, 屬於混淆選項，文中提到的是人們的印象。D選項，文中只是提到作者的照片，而並不是該選項中的Victorian攝影的發展。
32. 通過題幹定位詞，...he has collected, 可定位至第二段首句， 「my collection」, 於是該句中，作者認為自己收集的Victorians,...a tiny percentage of ...是1840到1900年中間photographs 當中的極少的一部分。於是正確選項B中 「rare」即是同義替換。而A，C，D都屬於幹擾選項，A中的popular 在第5段提到，說的是諺語而非是照片使用。D選項中exposure times 文中三四段都有提到，而並沒有提到照片的效果。
33. 通過題幹中定位詞1890s, 可以定位至第四段的末尾句，Victorians hesitated to smile...於是，第五段首句繼續分析原因，先是講到笑會暴露牙齒，而後緊接著出現 「shocking state of hygiene」 牙齒衛生情況。所以概括得來，該題正確選項，而無須排除其它選項。
34. 通過Mark Twain, 可定位至末尾段的末尾句。該句中的「damning, foolish, silly，forever」等關鍵詞準確的表明了Mark Twain 也是對於smiles in pictures 是不贊同的態度,而且此態度由來已久。所以由此可以得知該題的正確選項是A。而作者本身並沒有表明自己的態度，所以B, C, D都是幹擾選項。
35. 35題則是考察文章的主旨，通過整篇文章，第一段以照片引出話題, Victorians』 smiling, 是非常少見的，而後緊接著在第二段，第三段都繼續提到人們的fixed smile 僵硬的笑容，最後第四段，第五段進一步分析Victorians不願意微笑的原因可能是什麼，不贊同拍照時笑的觀點也是由來已久。綜合概括，可得知正確選項是A，為什麼絕大多數的Victorians 在照片中都看起來非常嚴肅。
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