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　　1. 试题：

　　Text 3

　　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 Victorians 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 collection 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 explain 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”.

　　2. 答案详解：

　　31. According to Paragraph 1, 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.

　　【答案】A。题干中的定位词为posts on Twitter，对应文章的定位点为第一段插入语部分since I started posting them on Twitter，锁定后面的主句they have been causing quite a stir引起了人们的反应，接着下一句提到人们发现维多利亚人竟然会笑时感到惊讶，所以引申为改变了人们对维多利亚人的印象，A选项为正确答案。

　　【干扰项】文章中提到推特的部分是插入语部分，只是一个方式引出了人们对维多利亚人印象的转变，但推特本身的作用并没有提到，B选项属于过度引申;C选项为“重新评估维多利亚人对公众印象的观念”，段首句中确实有re-evaluate这个动词，但评估的对象是历史，与维多利亚人的观念无关，C选项属于张冠李戴，可排除;维多利亚人照片的发展在后几段中提到，主要提到的是曝光时间的发展，不是照片的发展，而且脱离了定位段，排除D选项。

　　答案

　　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.

　　【答案】B。题干的定位词为collected，对应文章第二段第一句结尾的collection，故定位至该句，该句中的关键词为only a tiny percentage，由此可得出作者的照片并不是主流，只占了少量的比例，也就是稀有，rare是对这两个词的同意替换，故选B。

　　【干扰项】A选项是相反选项设置，与段首句和B选项的内容完全相反，可直接排除;19世纪的内容不在定位段，且下文中告诉我们，19世纪时维多利亚人照相时有不笑的传统，而作者的照片给公众展示了维多利亚人的微笑，语义相反，C选项可排除;different exposure times出现在第三段和下文中，不在定位段，作者的照片与这个也毫无关系，可排除D选项。

　　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.

　　【答案】A。题干中的定位词为1890s，对应的定位句为文章第四段尾句，该句引出了维多利亚人在这个时代照相时仍然不爱笑的原因，所以继续定位至文章第五段，该段首句提到了grin(露齿)，提到了牙齿(teeth)，下文内容解释了维多利亚人的牙齿健康状况不好，所以他们有不在镜头前微笑的传统，选D。

　　【干扰项】ABC三个选项的内容在文章中均未出现。

　　34. Mark Twain is quoted to show that the disapproval of smiles in pictures was

　　A. a deep-root belief.

　　B. a misguided attitude.

　　C. a controversial view.

　　D. a thought-provoking idea.

　　【答案】A。题干中的定位词为Mark Twain，对应的定位句在文章最后一段，这里提到了马克吐温不太喜欢照相时微笑，名人的例子出现，用于论证前面的观点，由此体现这个习俗非常深，A选项正确。

　　【干扰项】文章并未提到误导性、争议性和引人深思，故而其他三个选项均为错。

　　35. Which of the following questions 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?

　　【答案】A。本文前几段分别介绍了照相曝光技术的发展、维多利亚人的牙齿健康等一系列问题，借此探讨维多利亚人在大多数照片中不爱笑的原因，A选项的look stern(看起来严肃)是对该内容的近义替换。故选A。

　　【干扰项】其他三个选项的内容均未出现。文章只提到了维多利亚人照相时候对笑的态度，而不是对照相的态度，故而排除B选项;文章中间段提到了照相技术特别是曝光时间的发展，但并未提到发展缓慢也没有提原因，故排除C选项;文章分析了维多利亚人照相时不爱笑的传统和原因，但并未提到后维多利亚时代，更未提到是否出现了照片中的笑容，故排除D。

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