歷年考研英語(yǔ)閱讀理解2004年02

[00:05.61]2004 Text2 [00:07.36]Over the past century, [00:09.18]all kinds of unfairness and discrimination [00:11.80]have been condemned or made illegal. [00:14.82]But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. [00:20.63]This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, [00:24.72]refers to discrimination against those [00:27.24]whose surnames begin with a letter [00:29.39]in the lower half of the alphabet. [00:32.37]It has long been known [00:34.02]that a taxi firm called AAAA cars has a big advantage [00:40.05]over Zodiac cars when customers thumb [00:43.19]through their phone directories. [00:46.12]Less well known is the advantage [00:48.25]that Adam Abbott has in life over Zoe Zysman. [00:53.39]English names are fairly evenly spread [00:55.91]between the halves of the alphabet. [00:58.44]Yet a suspiciously large number of top people [01:01.47]have surnames beginning with letters between A and K. [01:06.72]Thus the American president and vice-president [01:10.15]have surnames starting with B and C respectively; [01:14.88]and 26 of George Bush's predecessors [01:18.10](including his father) had surnames in the first half [01:21.80]of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. [01:27.04]Even more striking, [01:28.45]six of the seven heads of government [01:30.47]of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged [01:35.10](Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chrétien and Koizumi). [01:42.74]The world's three top central bankers [01:45.65](Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) [01:49.58]are all close to the top of the alphabet, [01:52.71]even if one of them really uses Japanese characters. [01:56.64]As are the world's five richest men [01:59.27](Gates, Buffett, Allen, Ellison and Albrecht). [02:04.08]Can this merely be coincidence? [02:07.20]One theory, dreamt up in all the spare time enjoyed [02:10.59]by the alphabetically disadvantaged, [02:13.02]is that the rot sets in early. [02:15.81]At the start of the first year in infant school, [02:18.95]teachers seat pupils alphabetically from the front, [02:22.37]to make it easier to remember their names. [02:25.39]So short-sighted Zysman junior gets stuck in the back row, [02:30.65]and is rarely asked the improving questions posed [02:33.96]by those insensitive teachers. [02:36.89]At the time the alphabetically disadvantaged [02:39.49]may think they have had a lucky escape. [02:42.13]Yet the result may be worse qualifications, [02:45.34]because they get less individual attention, [02:48.17]as well as less confidence in speaking publicly. [02:52.42]The humiliation continues. [02:54.82]At university graduation ceremonies, [02:57.54]the ABCs proudly get their awards first; [03:01.77]by the time they reach the Zysmans most people [03:04.60]are literally having a ZZZ. [03:07.81]Shortlists for job interviews, [03:10.12]election ballot papers, [03:11.74]lists of conference speakers and attendees: [03:14.87]all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, [03:17.69]and their recipients lose interest [03:20.01]as they plough through them.

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