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考研英語真題閱讀理解試題及名師解析(二十)
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 Zo 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, Chrétien 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。
26. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?
[A] A kind of overlooked inequality。
[B] A type of conspicuous bias。
[C] A type of personal prejudice。
[D] A kind of brand discrimination。
27. What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
[A] In both East and West, names are essential to success.
[B] The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zo Zysman.
[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names。
[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize。
28. The 4th paragraph suggests that
[A] questions are often put to the more intelligent students。
[B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape form class.
[C] teachers should pay attention to all of their students.
[D] students should be seated according to their eyesight。
29. What does the author mean by “most people are literally having a ZZZ” (Lines 2-3, Paragraph 5)？
[A] They are getting impatient。
[B] They are noisily dozing off。
[C] They are feeling humiliated。
[D] They are busy with word puzzles。
30. Which of the following is true according to the text?
[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。
名師解析
26. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?
作者用“AAAA汽車”和“Zodiac汽車”來例證什么？
[A] A kind of overlooked inequality. 某種被忽視的不平等。
[B] A type of conspicuous bias. 某種顯而易見的偏見。
[C] A type of personal prejudice. 某種個人的偏見。
[D] A kind of brand discrimination. 某種品牌上的歧視。
【答案】 A
【考點】 判斷題。
【分析】 本題考查作者的寫作意圖，即作者用這兩個例子試圖來證明什么問題。通常人們只有在需要證明某個方面的問題時才會引用例子，那么作者用這兩個例子究竟是為了說明什么問題呢？其實考生在讀完第一段之后就應該比較清楚作者的意圖了，即他正在試圖證明按字母排序這一隱蔽的不公平現(xiàn)象。[B]“某種顯而易見的偏見”錯在“顯而易見”。[C]“某種個人的偏見”錯在“個人”。[D]“某種品牌上的歧視”是故意在偷換概念，舉這兩個例子不是為了說明哪一個品牌好，而是為了證明字母順序主義的存在與危害。
27. What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
從文章前三段，我們可以推斷出什么？
[A] In both East and West, names are essential to success。
在東方和西方，名字對于成功來說都是至關重要的。
[B] The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zo Zysman.
Zo Zysman的失敗應該歸咎于字母表。
[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names。
顧客通常很注重公司的名字。。
[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize。
某種歧視過于微妙以至于難以被人發(fā)現(xiàn)。
【答案】 D
【考點】 文章結構與舉例說明題。
【分析】 考生只有通讀作者要求的這三段，才能夠得出正確結論。第一段提出“字母順序主義”這一說法，第二段舉例說明這種現(xiàn)象在生活中的表現(xiàn)，第三段舉例說明“字母順序主義”在名人身上的體現(xiàn)。在上題中說過，舉例都是為了證明某個觀點，也就是說，第二和第三段都是為了證明第一段提出的論點。從幾個關鍵的單詞、詞組“insidious”，“unaware”以及“l(fā)ess well known”我們可以推斷出正確選項[D]“某種歧視過于微妙以至于難以被人發(fā)現(xiàn)。”。選項[A]顯得過于絕對。將某一個人或者某一類人的失敗全部歸咎于字母是有失偏頗的，文章中只是說，由于名字靠后，有一些學生可能容易被老師忽視，從而導致學習的失敗，但是這不能說明都是字母的責任，而且這一點已經(jīng)不在前三段了。選項[C]這一說法也是以偏概全，文中只是說顧客容易受到字母排序的影響從而注意到排名靠前的出租車公司而已。
28. The 4th paragraph suggests that 第四段暗示
[A] questions are often put to the more intelligent students。
更加聰明的學生經(jīng)常被提問。
[B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape form class。
姓氏在字母排序中處于劣勢的學生經(jīng)常逃課。
[C] teachers should pay attention to all of their students。
老師應該關注所有的學生。
[D] students should be seated according to their eyesight。
學生應該按照視力的好壞來排座位。
【答案】 C
【考點】 推斷題。
【分析】 文章中沒有直接給出一個答案，考生必須自己通過透徹的理解原文才能得出結論。第四段認為“這不是巧合，按字母表順序排名靠后而吃虧的人在業(yè)余時間憑空想出一種理論認為這種倒霉事兒很早就開始了。在幼兒學校第一年之始，老師為了較為容易記住學生的名字，就按字母表順序由前往后給學生排座位。因此近視的小Zysman就被插在了后排，這樣一來，粗心的教師提出的有助于提高的問題就很少會問到他。這時，按字母表順序排名靠后的學生還認為他們能逃避老師的問題很幸運。然而，結果可能就是成績欠佳，因為這種學生得到的個人關注較少，同時當眾講話時的信心也不足”。至此，作者再一次試圖論證其論點，即“按照字母排序是隱蔽的不平等”。而且這還導致了學生不能夠得到公平的教育機會，也就是在說，老師們該關注關注那些按字母排序吃虧的人了，因此選項[C]比較符合文意。[D]是一種貌似正確實際上以偏概全的說法，沒有達到作者想要表達的高度，是一種比較膚淺的表象的看法，有些考生沒有仔細精讀原文，就可能受其影響。
29. What does the author mean by “most people are literally having a ZZZ”(Lines 2-3, Paragraph 5)？
“most people are literally having a ZZZ”(第五段第二、三行)是什么意思？
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