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, 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.
单选题
What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?
单选题
What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】这是一道推论题。题干中的信号词为the first three paragraphs，也就是文章的前面三段。文章前面三段指出：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，当乘客通过电话本叫出租车时，名为“4A汽车”的出租车公司所具有的优势就比名为Zodiac的汽车公司大；人们不太知晓的是——在生活中，Adam Abbott比Zoe Zysman有优势。然后举例指出：有些人有字母方面的优势。这说明，由于某些隐秘的不公平和歧视太细微，难以被人们关注。D说“某种歧视太细微因而难以辨别”， 这与文章的意思相符。文中没有提到A和C；文中并没有提到“人们指责字母表导致姓氏靠后者的失败”，所以B不对。