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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.
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
选项 A、People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated.
B、VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.
C、The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way to go.
D、Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias.
答案D
解析 这是一道细节题。文章第一段指出：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，这就是按字母排序。第二段指出：人们早就知道，当乘客通过电话本叫出租车时，名为“AAAA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；但是，人们不太知晓的是——在生活中，Adam Abbott比Zoe Zysman有优势。第三段举例进一步说明。第四段指出：这只能算是巧合吗?在幼儿园，老师根据字母顺序从前到后给学生排座位，结果可能会造成更严重的后果。这说明，根据字母的先后排序的做法可能导致偏见。D说“以字母先后排顺序的做法可能导致无意识的偏见”，这与文章的意思相符。文中是说姓氏靠字母表后部分的人可能受到人们的歧视，并没有说会受到虐待，所以A不对。文中只是说“更令人惊奇的是，七个富裕国家的政府首脑中，有六位具有按字母排序的优势；世界上最重要的三位金融人士的姓氏都靠近字母表的前部分；世界上最富裕的五个人也是这样”，并没有说他们从以字母先后排序的做法中获得极大的好处，所以B不对。文中只是说“这种使人蒙羞的情况还在继续”，并没有说消除以字母先后排序的运动仍然任重道远，所以C也不对。
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