2. 职称英语
  3. Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been

Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been

游客2024-02-10  24
问题     Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious(阴险的)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 Zoe 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, Chretien 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. [br] What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?
选项 A、A kind of brand discrimination.
B、A kind of overlooked inequality.
C、A type of personal prejudice.
D、A type of car competition.
答案 B
解析 AAAA和Zodiac汽车出租公司这个例子出现在文章的第2段，是说人们平时通过查电话号码簿叫出租车的时候，名字以A开头的公司比名字以Z开头的公司远远要有优势。该例子是为了说明第1段所说的：按照字母排序会造成不平等和歧视，而且这种歧视一直没有受到人们的注意，故答案为B)。本文的中心论点是按字母排序的习惯做法造成了很多机会上的不平等，并非具体说明大众对某品牌的态度，因此排除A)；根据第2段后3句的内容，本文并非讲述人们的个人偏见，而是人的名字对人会产生一定影响，因此C)的含义在文中并未实际提及；D)的内容不属于原文的中心论点。
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