单选题 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 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, Alien, 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 ret 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 shortsighted 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.

单选题 What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?

【正确答案】 A

【答案解析】[解析] 本题可参照文章的第1段和第2段。从文章的第1段可知，一种隐秘的不公平和歧视继续盛行——按字母排序。第2段接着讲到，人们早就知道，当客户通过电话本叫出租车时，名为AAAA Cars的出租车公司就比名为Zodiac Cars的公司更具优势。人们不太知晓的是，Adam Abbott这个名字在生活中比Zoe Zysman有优势。据此可知，作者举AAAA Cars和Zodiac Cars出租车公司为例是为了说明——人们忽视了一种隐秘的不公平和歧视。A项与文章的意思相符，因此A项为正确答案。

单选题 What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 从文章的第1、2、3段的内容可知，过去各种各样的不公平和歧视受到人们的谴责或是被视为违法；但是，一种隐秘的不公平和歧视继续盛行。人们早就知道，当客户通过电话本叫出租车时，名为AAAA Cars的出租车公司就比名为Zodiac Cars的公司更具优势；人们不太知晓的是，Adam Abbott这个名字在生活中比Zoe Zysman有优势。然后举例说明，指出有些人有姓氏字母方面的优势。据此可知，由于某些隐秘的不公平和歧视太细微，所以难以被人们关注。D项与文章的意思相符，因此D项为正确答案。

单选题 The 4th paragraph suggests that ______.

【正确答案】 C

【答案解析】[解析] 文章第4段讲道，这仅是巧合吗?一种理论认为，这种情况早就存在。在幼儿园的开始阶段，老师按学生姓氏字母顺序从前到后排座位。一些近视的、姓氏靠后的幼儿不得不坐在后排，那些感觉迟钝的老师很少向这些幼儿提一些有助于提高的问题。那时，那些不具备姓氏字母优势的人可能认为他们幸运逃避了提问。但结果可能更糟。据此可知，老师不应该忽视那些没有姓氏字母优势的学生。C项与文章的意思相符，因此C项为正确答案。

单选题 What does the author mean by "most people are literally having a ZZZ" (Line 2, Para.5)?

【正确答案】 B

【答案解析】[解析] 从文章第5段的内容可知，在大学的毕业典礼上，那些姓氏字母靠前者首先获得奖品；等到该姓氏字母靠后者获奖时，大多数人都在打瞌睡了。求职面试的最后名单、投票选举名单、会议演讲者以及出席者名单，往往都是根据字母顺序制作的。当收件人查看这些名单时，他们的兴趣也随之消失了。据此可知，该句话的意思应该是——大多数人都在打鼾。B项与文章的意思相符，因此B项为正确答案。

单选题 Which of the following is true according to the text?

【正确答案】 D

【答案解析】[解析] 从文章第1段的内容可知，过去，各种各样的不公平和歧视受到人们的谴责或是被视为违法。但是，有一种隐秘的不公平和歧视继续盛行——按字母排序。从第2段的内容可知，人们早就知道，当客户通过电话本叫出租车时，名为AAAA Cars的出租车公司就比名为Zodiac Cars的公司更具优势；但是，人们不太知晓的是：Adam Abbott这个名字在生活中比Zoe Zysman有优势。第3段举例说明。第4段接着讲到，这能算是巧合吗?跟着举例指出：在幼儿园，老师按学生姓氏的字母表顺序从前到后排座位，可能会造成更严重的后果，因为这些人受到的关注更少，他们也更缺乏公开表达自己信心的机会。从文章的最后一段内容可知，这种使人蒙羞的情况还在继续。据此可知，根据字母排序的做法可能无意中导致偏见。D项与文章的意思相符，因此D项为正确答案。