PS：嘗試以BOM方式進(jìn)行記錄，參考書(shū)籍為世紀(jì)高教黃皮書(shū)；

日期說(shuō)明：研讀&記錄的日期；

編號(hào)說(shuō)明：[年份].[文章順序].[段落順序].[句子順序]，如：[04.02.03.05]——04年試卷、第2篇文章、第3段、第5句；

2023/04/07

04.03.01.01

Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination haver been condemned or made illegal.

04.03.01.02

But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism.

04.03.01.03

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.

04.03.02.01

It has long been known that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories.

04.03.02.02

Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoe Zysman.

04.03.02.03

English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of the alphabet.

04.03.02.04

Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.

04.03.03.01

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.

04.03.03.02

Even more striking, six of seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chretien, and Koizumi).

04.03.03.03

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.

04.03.03.04

As are the world's five richest men (Gates, Buffett, Allen, Ellison and Albrecht).

04.03.04.01

Can this merely be coincidence?

04.03.04.02

One theory, dreamt up in all the spare time enjoyed by the alphabetically disadvantaged, is that the rot sets in early.

04.03.04.03

At the start of the first year in infant school, teacher seat pupils alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names.

04.03.04.04

So short-sighted Zysman junior gets stuck in the back row, and is rarely asked the improving questions posed by those insecsitive teachers.

04.03.04.05

At that time the alphabetically disadvantaged my think they have had a lucky escape.

04.03.04.06

Yet the result may be worse qualifications, because they get less individual attention, as well as less confidence in speaking publicly.

04.03.05.01

The humiliation continue.

04.03.05.02

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.

04.03.05.03

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.