Text 2

　　Over the pastcentury, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or madeillegal. But one insidious form continues to thrive: alphabetism. This, forthose as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination againstthose 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 bigadvantage over Zodiac cars when customers thumb through their phonedirectories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbott has in life overZo? Zysman. English names are fairly evenly spread between the halves of thealphabet. Yet a suspiciously large number of top people have surnames beginningwith letters between A and K。

　　Thus the American president and vice-president have surnamesstarting with B and C respectively; and 26 of George Bush’spredecessors (including his father) had surnames in the first half of thealphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking, six of theseven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabeticallyadvantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chrétien and Koizumi).The world’s three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) areall close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanesecharacters. 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 thespare time enjoyed by the alphabetically disadvantaged, is that the rot sets inearly. At the start of the first year in infant school, teachers seat pupilsalphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. Soshort-sighted Zysman junior gets stuck in the back row, and is rarely asked theimproving questions posed by those insensitive teachers. At the time thealphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet theresult 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, theABCs proudly get their awards first; by the time they reach the Zysmans mostpeople are literally having a ZZZ. Shortlists for job interviews, electionballot papers, lists of conference speakers and attendees: all tend to be drawnup alphabetically, and their recipients lose interest as they plough throughthem。

　　26. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars andZodiac 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 areliterally 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 oftenill-treated。

　　[B] VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism。

　　[C] The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way togo。

　　[D] Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias。

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