2. 外语
  3. Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious(阴险的)for

Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious(阴险的)for

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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(阴险的)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.
The author suggests in the fourth paragraph that______.
选项 A、questions are often put to the more intelligent students
B、teachers should pay attention to all of their students
C、alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape from class
D、students should be seated according to their eyesight
答案B
解析 在第4段中，从第3句到末句，作者以Zysman为例，是为了说明名字的首字母在字母表中排序较后的孩子在学校中得不到平等的锻炼机会和受重视程度。B)意为“教师们应当关注到所有学生”，与原文意思相符，故为答案。第4段第4句中提到Zysman坐在后排很少有机会回答老师的提问，而并未提及聪明的孩子总能被提问，故A)错误；C)和D)在原文均未提及。
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