首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
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
admin
2014-03-02
55
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, Buffet, 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 vow, 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 can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
选项
A、In both East and West, names are essential to success.
B、The alphabet is to blame for the failure of ZoeZysman.
C、Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names.
D、Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize.
答案
D
解析
前3段通过举例说明了由于在日常生活中按照字母顺序排序带来了许多不平等的现象,往往很有成就的人都是姓的字母排在前面的人,而这种现象还不为人知。所以说像字母顺序引起的歧视太微妙了而不易被发觉,选D。A,B,C都曲解了作者的意思。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/wVQO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
ThoughIhadtriedtoexplainitasclearlyaspossible,myexplanationseemednotto______.
Thoughthisbookwaswrittenmorethan50yearsago,ithasarelativelycontemporaryappeal,andits______plottingwillamusem
Thisspeculation(acoursetaughtwithtechnologyhelpsstudentslearnmorethantheonetaughtintheliveclassroom)isnotbase
Thebiographerhastodancebetweentwoshakypositionswithrespecttothesubject.Tooclosearelation,andthewritermaylo
Ifitwereonlynecessarytodecidewhethertoteachelementarysciencetoeveryoneonamassbasisortofindthegiftedfewan
Tomwastotally______whenhereceivedaContheexaminhistory,forhewaspositivethathecouldhavegotanA.
TheonlysolidpiecesofscientifictruthaboutwhichIfeeltotallyconfidentisthatweareprofoundlyignorantaboutnature.
Thetrucks_______heavygoodsfromfactoriestotheports.
Themedia’s_____inthepresidentsprivatelifeswitchedtheattentionawayfromtherealissues.
随机试题
在肺癌中,最常见病理组织学类型是
下列药物不属于清热燥湿药的是
功专健脾和胃的药是()
导致月经紊乱的因素有()
某个人独资企业的投资人甲聘用乙作为企业经理,下列所述乙的哪些行为是法律禁止的?()
下列()项不能用作电动湿度传感器。
陈先生夫妇今年均已40岁,家里存款在50万元左右。他和妻子两个人每月收入大约1万元,月花费近4000元。陈先生和妻子计划在10年后退休,假设他们退休后再生存30年,且他们每年花费18万元(注:这笔钱在每年年初拿出),减掉基本养老保险和保险公司给予的保险金
阅读以下文字。完成下列题。唐代诗人张祜《题杭州孤山寺》中有“断桥荒藓合,空院落花深”的诗句,这被视为今日西湖十景之“断桥”的最早文献记录。断桥在南宋咸淳年间因隶属宝祐坊而改称宝祐桥。因“断桥”不断,当时也出现了用谐音“段桥”解释为“段家
著名学者齐美尔认为,由于允许冲突的存在,结构松散群体和开放社会会对那种危及基本意见一致的冲突形成保护层,从而把产生有损核心价值观念的分歧的危险减少到最低程度,对立群体的互相依赖和这种社会内部冲突的交叉,有助于通过互相抵消而把“社会体系缝合起来”,这样就阻止
Whydoesthestudentgotoseehisprofessor?
最新回复
(
0
)