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  3. Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form co

Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious form co

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问题     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, 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.
What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA ears and Zodiac cars?
选项 A、A kind of overlooked inequality.
B、A type of conspicuous bias.
C、A type of personal prejudice.
D、A kind of brand discrimination.
答案A
解析 推理题。根据题干中的关键词“AAAA cars”和“Zodiac cars”可定位到文章第二段第一句，该句提到“…AAAA cars has a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phone directories．”即可知，当顾客翻寻电话号码簿时，名字为AAAA的出租车公司比名为Zodiac的公司更有优势。这个例子是为了证明上一段中提到的“But one insidious form continues to thrive：alphabetism．”可知，AAAA的出租车公司比名为Zodiac的公司更有优势，是因为A处于字母表的第一位，而z处于字母表的最后一位。A选项“A kind of overlooked inequality．”一种被人们忽视的不平等现象，符合文意，故选A。
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