2017年考研的小伙伴们，大家在巩固基础的同时不要忘记多抽时间训练自己的阅读能力，阅读不是一朝一夕就可以提高的，长久的积累才可以达到从量到质的巨变，因此，圣才考研网在次给大家提供一篇关于社会生活类阅读的实训题，希望大家能够认真仔细的做题。
Passage 4
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 Zoë 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.
1. 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.
2. 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 Zoë Zysman.
[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names.
[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize.
3. The 4th paragraph suggests that ________.
[A] questions are often put to the more intelligent students
[B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape from class
[C] teachers should pay attention to all of their students
[D] students should be seated according to their eyesight
4. 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.
5. 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.
【答案解析】
1. A 细节题。文章第一段提出了本文的主题：“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”一种不为人们注意的不公正仍然很普遍，即按字母顺序排列的习惯。第二段接着举了AAA A cars and Zodiac cars的例子证明这种被忽视的不平等，说明字母歧视是生活中隐形的歧视，从而证明了上面提出的主旨，故选A。
2. D 推论题。前三段主要讲述了字母歧视并举例证明其存在，第二段和第三段举例证明主题，用“a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K”以及很多名人的首字母是前几位字母的事实，这些事实说明虽然这种歧视很细微，人们可能观察不到，但它们的确说明了字母歧视的存在。A, B过于**，文章只是指出名字靠前的人具有优势，并没有说这是人们成功的根源，也没有说名字靠后是失败的根源。C文中未提及。
3. C 推断题。第四段用假设的方法讲述了Zysman的遭遇，说明了字母歧视为个人带来的影响，其中提到：“So short-sighted Zysman junior gets stuck in the back row and is rarely asked the improving questions posed by those insensitive teachers”，老师按照字母的排序安排座位，使得近视的Zysman只能坐在最后一排，从而被老师忽略，很少问他问题，以至于最后使他缺少锻炼的机会，第五句指出，当时那些名字排列靠后的人还觉得侥幸逃脱了提问呢，但是结果可能是能力越来越差。所以说，老师应该关注到所有的学生。
4. B 第五段开头承接上文：这样的影响还在继续，在大学毕业典礼上，名字以ABC开头的同学很快拿到了奖状，但是轮到名叫Zysman的学生时，大多数人都在划ZZZ。最后得出结论：所有的名单都是按字母顺序排列的，拿到材料的人看到最后都没有什么兴趣了。因此ZZZ的意思是“大多数人早已经打瞌睡了”，故选B。
5. D 推断题。第一段第二句“一种不为人们注意的不公正仍然很普遍，即按字母顺序排列的习惯”是本文的主旨句。随后作者围绕这一主题展开论述。另外，文章最后一句进一步阐明了这个问题：“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”求职者的候选名单、选举投票、大会发言人和参会人的名单，如果这些都按照字母排序的话，他们的接受者在这个过程中会失去兴趣。也就是说，按照字母来排序可能会导致人们无意识产生的偏好。A项过于极端，而B、C项文中没有提及，故选D。
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