原文初讀

P1

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 .

P2

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 Zo ? 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 .

P3

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 , Chr é tien 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 ).

P4

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 .

P5

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 .

重點(diǎn)單詞/短語(yǔ)理解

condemn

：v 譴責(zé)，指責(zé)

insidious

：adj 暗中為害的；潛伏的

thrive

：v 興盛；蓬勃發(fā)展

thumb through

：快速翻閱

thumb

：n 拇指；(手套的)拇指部分；v 翹起拇指請(qǐng)求搭乘(過路汽車)；示意請(qǐng)求搭便車；用拇指摸；用拇指捋

directory

：n 電話號(hào)碼??；公司名錄

fairly

：adv 相當(dāng)，頗

evenly

：adv 均勻地；均等地

suspiciously

：adv 奇怪地；出乎意料地

respectively

：adv 分別；依次地

character

：n 文字；字符

dream sth up

：想出（不同尋常的計(jì)劃、主意）

rot

：n 形勢(shì)惡化

set in

：（不愉快的事）開始，來(lái)臨

infant

：n 幼兒

junior

：adj 小（置于同名父子中兒子姓名之后）

get stuck

：動(dòng)不了，卡住

improving

：adj 有教育意義的；益智性的

qualification

：n 資格考試

humiliation

：n 羞辱，屈辱

literally

：adv （用于強(qiáng)調(diào)）確實(shí)，真正地

shortlist

：n 候選名單

ballot

：n （不記名）投票

conference

：n 會(huì)議

plough through sth

：費(fèi)勁讀完…

plough

：

n.

犁；北斗七星；大熊星座

v.

犁(田)；耕(地)；翻(土)

真題再現(xiàn)

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 Zo ? 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 from 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 .

答案速查：ADCBD

真題解析

26.作者提到AAAA和Zodiac的汽車公司是為了借這個(gè)大家都知道的現(xiàn)象來(lái)引出下文不為人知的首字母歧視。選A。B：完全和原文意思相反

overlooked

：adj 忽視的，未注意到的

conspicuous

：adj 引人注目的，明顯的

bias

：n 偏見

C：這不是一種個(gè)人偏見，而是一種隱含的社會(huì)性的偏見。D：不是為了說(shuō)明一種品牌歧視，與中心主旨不符。

27.A：過于夸大了名字對(duì)于成功的重要性。

B：首先，混淆概念，個(gè)人成敗與字母表引發(fā)的歧視有關(guān)而不是字母表。其次，過于絕對(duì)，個(gè)人成敗并不歸因于字母表歧視，還與其他很多因素有關(guān)。

C：文中只是說(shuō)出租車公司名字字母排序越靠前越容易被顧客注意到。并不是說(shuō)顧客很在意公司的名字。

D正確。與26意思類似。有些歧視太微妙以至于很難被察覺。

28.C。認(rèn)真理解第四段

29.重點(diǎn)理解

dozing off：打鼾

原文by the time they reach the Zysmans most people are

literally

having a ZZZ .大學(xué)畢業(yè)典禮輪到姓氏Z開頭的學(xué)生時(shí)，大部分人都確實(shí)鼾聲大作了。A選項(xiàng)干擾性強(qiáng)，但沒B這么生動(dòng)。 30.A：過于具體，主觀臆斷姓氏首字母在N到Z之間的人會(huì)被更差的對(duì)待，文中只是說(shuō)首字母排在字母表后面的人。 B：西方杰出人士都從字母表歧視中獲得了好處嗎？文中只是說(shuō)西方杰出人士中很大一部分姓氏首字母占優(yōu)勢(shì)。 C：文中沒有提到消除字母表歧視的運(yùn)動(dòng)，只介紹了這種現(xiàn)象。 D：與26、27意思相同。

鴨鴨真的沒想到看似公平的按字母表順序排序居然蘊(yùn)藏著這么多的不公平！