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(中世紀狂歡節) 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.
