Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.

It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoë Zysman. English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.

Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B and C respectively; and 26 of George Bush’s predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking, six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chrétien and Koizumi). The world’s three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanese characters. As are the world’s five richest men (Gates, Buffett, Allen, Ellison and Albrecht).

Can this merely be coincidence? One theory, dreamt up in all the spare time enjoyed by the alphabetically disadvantaged, is that the rot sets in early. At the start of the first year in infant school, teachers seat pupils alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. So short-sighted Zysman junior gets stuck in the back row, and is rarely asked the improving questions posed by those insensitive teachers. At the time the alphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet the result may be worse qualifications, because they get less individual attention, as well as less confidence in speaking publicly.

The humiliation continues. At university graduation ceremonies, the ABCs proudly get their awards first; by the time they reach the Zysmans most people are literally having a ZZZ. Shortlists for job interviews, election ballot papers, lists of conference speakers and attendees: all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their recipients lose interest as they plough through them.

26. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?

[A] A kind of overlooked inequality.

[B] A type of conspicuous bias.

[C] A type of personal prejudice.

[D] A kind of brand discrimination.

27. What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?

[A] In both East and West, names are essential to success.

[B] The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoë Zysman.

[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names.

[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize.

28. The 4th paragraph suggests that

[A] questions are often put to the more intelligent students.

[B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape form class.

[C] teachers should pay attention to all of their students.

[D] students should be seated according to their eyesight.

29. What does the author mean by “ most people are literally having a ZZZ ” (Lines 2-3, Paragraph 5)?

[A] They are getting impatient.

[B] They are noisily dozing off.

[C] They are feeling humiliated.

[D] They are busy with word puzzles.

30. Which of the following is true according to the text?

[A] People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated.

[B] VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.

[C] The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way to go.

[D] Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias.

名师解析

26. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?

作者用“ AAAA 汽车”和“ Zodiac 汽车”来例证什么？

[A] A kind of overlooked inequality. 某种被忽视的不平等。

[B] A type of conspicuous bias. 某种显而易见的偏见。

[C] A type of personal prejudice. 某种个人的偏见。

[D] A kind of brand discrimination. 某种品牌上的歧视。

【答案】 A

【考点】 判断题。

【分析】 本题考查作者的写作意图，即作者用这两个例子试图来证明什么问题。通常人们只有在需要证明某个方面的问题时才会引用例子，那么作者用这两个例子究竟是为了说明什么问题呢？其实考生在读完第一段之后就应该比较清楚作者的意图了，即他正在试图证明按字母排序这一隐蔽的不公平现象。 [B] “某种显而易见的偏见”错在“显而易见”。 [C] “某种个人的偏见”错在“个人”。 [D] “某种品牌上的歧视”是故意在偷换概念，举这两个例子不是为了说明哪一个品牌好，而是为了证明字母顺序主义的存在与危害。

27. What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?

从文章前三段，我们可以推断出什么 ?

[A] In both East and West, names are essential to success.

在东方和西方，名字对于成功来说都是至关重要的。

[B] The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoë Zysman.

Zoë Zysman 的失败应该归咎于字母表。

[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names.

顾客通常很注重公司的名字。 .

[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize.

某种歧视过于微妙以至于难以被人发现。

【答案】 D

【考点】 文章结构与举例说明题。

【分析】 考生只有通读作者要求的这三段，才能够得出正确结论。第一段提出“字母顺序主义”这一说法，第二段举例说明这种现象在生活中的表现，第三段举例说明“字母顺序主义”在名人身上的体现。在上题中说过，举例都是为了证明某个观点，也就是说，第二和第三段都是为了证明第一段提出的论点。从几个关键的单词、词组“ insidious ”，“ unaware ”以及“ less well known ”我们可以推断出正确选项 [D] “某种歧视过于微妙以至于难以被人发现。”。选项 [A] 显得过于绝对。将某一个人或者某一类人的失败全部归咎于字母是有失偏颇的，文章中只是说，由于名字靠后，有一些学生可能容易被老师忽视，从而导致学习的失败，但是这不能说明都是字母的责任，而且这一点已经不在前三段了。选项 [C] 这一说法也是以偏概全，文中只是说顾客容易受到字母排序的影响从而注意到排名靠前的出租车公司而已。

28. The 4th paragraph suggests that 第四段暗示

[A] questions are often put to the more intelligent students.

更加聪明的学生经常被提问。

[B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape form class.

姓氏在字母排序中处于劣势的学生经常逃课。

[C] teachers should pay attention to all of their students.

老师应该关注所有的学生。

[D] students should be seated according to their eyesight.

学生应该按照视力的好坏来排座位。

【答案】 C

【考点】 推断题。

【分析】 文章中没有直接给出一个答案，考生必须自己通过透彻的理解原文才能得出结论。第四段认为“这不是巧合，按字母表顺序排名靠后而吃亏的人在业余时间凭空想出一种理论认为这种倒霉事儿很早就开始了。在幼儿学校第一年之始，老师为了较为容易记住学生的名字，就按字母表顺序由前往后给学生排座位。因此近视的小 Zysman 就被插在了后排，这样一来，粗心的教师提出的有助于提高的问题就很少会问到他。这时，按字母表顺序排名靠后的学生还认为他们能逃避老师的问题很幸运。然而，结果可能就是成绩欠佳，因为这种学生得到的个人关注较少，同时当众讲话时的信心也不足”。至此，作者再一次试图论证其论点，即“按照字母排序是隐蔽的不平等”。而且这还导致了学生不能够得到公平的教育机会，也就是在说，老师们该关注关注那些按字母排序吃亏的人了，因此选项 [C] 比较符合文意。 [D] 是一种貌似正确实际上以偏概全的说法，没有达到作者想要表达的高度，是一种比较肤浅的表象的看法，有些考生没有仔细精读原文，就可能受其影响。

29. What does the author mean by “ most people are literally having a ZZZ ” (Lines 2-3, Paragraph 5)?

“ most people are literally having a ZZZ ” ( 第五段第二、三行 ) 是什么意思 ?

[A] They are getting impatient. 他们急不可耐。

[B] They are noisily dozing off. 他们鼾声大作。

[C] They are feeling humiliated. 他们感觉受到了屈辱。

[D] They are busy with word puzzles. 他们忙于拼字游戏。 .

【答案】 B

【考点】 推断题。

【分析】 看第五段“这种羞辱继续着。在大学的毕业典礼上，姓名首字母是 A 、 B 、 C 的学生骄傲地首先领到奖品；等轮到 Zysman 们领奖品的时候，大多数人差不多都在‘ ZZZ ’了”。在西方漫画中，“ ZZZ ”就是表示打鼾，这是考查考生平日的英语学习中是否对西方文化背景知识给予足够的关注。

30. Which of the following is true according to the text?

根据本文，以下哪一种说法是正确的 ?

[A] People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated.

姓氏字母为 N 到 Z 的人经常受到不公平的对待。

[B] VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.

西方世界的重要人士从字母顺序主义中获益颇丰。

[C] The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way to go.

消除字母顺序主义的运动仍然任重而道远。

[D] Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias.

凡是按照字母排序把事物排列的做法可能会导致无意识的偏见。

【答案】 D

【考点】 事实细节题。

【分析】 本题考查的是事实细节，而且选项跨度很大，只有在通篇阅读本文并且取得深刻认识之后，我们才有可能完全答对本道题目。选项 [A] 这一说法的问题出在作者提到“ A-K ”，而不是到“ M ”，而且“ ill-treated ”这个单词有点过了，因为字母顺序主义导致的不公平与主观的虐待还是有很大区别的。选项 [B] 这一说法的问题出在程度的限定上。文章中提到许多杰出人士在字母排序中靠前，但是这只能够说这些人相比字母靠后的人可能更容易成功，而且西方世界的重要人士这个主语太大了，它也包括字母靠后的那些重要人士，而且用“ gain a great deal ”都显得过于夸张。 [C] 这个说法与作者的意图不同，作者只是在论证字母顺序主义这样一种不平等现象，但是并没有提出要消除字母顺序主义。只有选项 [D] 还比较合理，来自于首段的第二、三句。

难句解析 ：

1. This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.

【结构分析】 该句子的主句是“ this refers to discrimination ”。主语“ this ”和谓语“ refers to ”之间插入了介宾短语“ for those ”作状语，“ those ”后跟着形容词短语“ unaware of… ”作其定语，宾语“ discrimination ”后跟介宾短语“ against those… ”作定语，“ those ”后又有“ whose ”引导的定语从句来修饰。

2. Thus the American president and vice-president have surnames starting with B and C respectively; and 26 of George Bush’s predecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half.

【结构分析】 “ and ”将本句分为两个并列分句，第一个分句即“ American president and vice-president have surnames ”，第二个分句是“ 26 of…had surnames ”。第一个分句的宾语“ surnames ”后是现在分词结构“ starting with ”作定语；第二个分句宾语紧跟的介词结构“ in the first half of the alphabet ”作定语。

全文翻译：

在过去的一个世纪里各种各样的不公和歧视遭到了谴责或定为非法。但是有一种隐蔽的不公和歧视形式还在盛行：字母顺序主义。对于尚未意识到其危害的人来说，它指的是针对那些姓氏起始字母位于字母表后半部的人的歧视。

人们早已知道在客户翻阅电话簿时，名叫 AAAA 的出租汽车公司要比 Zodiac 出租汽车公司有很大的优越性。至于在生活方面，一个名叫 Adam Abbott 的人较之一个名为 Zoë Zysman 的人占了多大的优势就不那么为人所知了。英语的姓名虽然在字母表的前后两部分的分布相当平均，但杰出人物的姓名的首字母在 A 与 K 之间的却多得可疑。

如此这般，美国的总统和副总统的姓氏分别是以 B 和 C 字母起头。乔治 · 布什的前任有二十六位 ( 包括其父 ) 的姓氏均在字母表的前半部分，而姓氏在字母表后半部的却仅有十六位。更加令人瞩目的是七国首脑中有六位在其姓氏按字母表顺序排名时靠前 (Berlusconi ， Blair ， Bush ， Chirac ， Chrétien ， Koizumi) 。世界三大中央银行家 (Greenspan ， Duisenberg ， Hayami) 的姓氏首字母全都接近字母表的上端，三人之中有一人名字尽管用的是日文，也是如此。世界上最富有的前五位情况也是如此 (Gates ， Buffett ， Allen ， Ellison ， Albrecht) 。

这仅仅是巧合吗？按字母表顺序排名靠后而吃亏的人在业余时间凭空想出一种理论，认为这种倒霉事儿很早就开始了。在幼儿学校第一年之始，老师为了较为容易记住学生的名字，就按字母表顺序由前往后给学生排座位。因此近视的小 Zysman 就被插在了后排，这样一来，粗心的教师提出的有助于提高学生能力的问题就很少会问到他。这时，按字母表顺序排名靠后的学生还认为他们能逃避老师的问题很幸运。然而，结果可能就是成绩欠佳，因为这种学生得到的个人关注较少，同时当众讲话时的信心也不足。

这种耻辱还在继续着。在大学的毕业典礼上，姓名首字母是 A 、 B 、 C 的学生骄傲的首先领到奖品；等轮到 Zysman 们领奖品的时候，大多数人简直都在鼾声大作了。求职面试、选举投票、会议发言或参加会议等诸多名单，也是按字母表顺序排序，当人们费劲地向下查看时，兴趣随之索然。