考研英語真題閱讀理解試題及名師解析(20)
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, 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 Zoë 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。
26. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?
[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
【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麼問題。通常人們只有在需要證明某個方面的問題時纔會引用例子，那麼作者用這兩個例子究竟是爲了說明什麼問題呢?其實考生在讀完第一段之後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，舉這兩個例子不是爲了說明哪一個品牌好，而是爲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，我們可以推斷出什麼?
[A] In both East and West, names are essential to success。
[B] The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoë Zysman.
Zoë Zysman的失敗應該歸咎於字母表。
[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names。
[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize。
某種歧視過於微妙以至於難以被人發現。
【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象在生活中的表現，第三段舉例說明“字母順序主義”在名人身上的體現。在上題中說過，舉例都是爲了證明某個觀點，也就是說，第二和第三段都是爲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“less well known”我們可以推斷出正確選項[D]“某種歧視過於微妙以至於難以被人發現。”。選項[A]顯得過於絕對。將某一個人或者某一類人的失敗全部歸咎於字母是有失偏頗的，文章中只是說，由於名字靠後，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。
更加聰明的學生經常被提問。
[B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape form class。
姓氏在字母排序中處於劣勢的學生經常逃課。
[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。第四段認爲“這不是巧合，按字母表順序排名靠後而吃虧的人在業餘時間憑空想出一種理論認爲這種倒黴事兒很早就開始了。在幼兒學校第一年之始，老師爲了較爲容易記住學生的名字，就按字母表順序由前往後給學生排座位。因此近視的小Zysman就被插在了後排，這樣一來，粗心的教師提出的有助於提高的問題就很少會問到他。這時，按字母表順序排名靠後的學生還認爲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，因爲這種學生得到的個人關注較少，同時當衆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)是什麼意思?
[A] They are getting impatient. 他們急不可耐。
[B] They are noisily dozing off. 他們鼾聲大作。
[C] They are feeling humiliated. 他們感覺受到了屈辱。
[D] They are busy with word puzzles. 他們忙於拼字遊戲。。
【答案】 B
【考點】 推斷題。
【分析】 看第五段“這種羞辱繼續着。在大學的畢業典禮上，姓名首字母是A、B、C的學生驕傲地首先領到獎品;等輪到Zysman們領獎品的時候，大多數人差不多都在‘ZZZ’了”。在西方漫畫中，“ZZZ”就是表示打鼾，這是考查考生平日的英語學習中是否對西方文化背景知識給予足夠的關注。
30. Which of the following is true according to the text?
根據本文，以下哪一種說法是正確的?
[A] People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated。
姓氏字母爲N到Z的人經常受到不公平的對待。
[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。
消除字母順序主義的運動仍然任重而道遠。
[D] Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias。
凡是按照字母排序把事物排列的做法可能會導致無意識的偏見。
【答案】 D
【分析】 本題考查的是事實細節，而且選項跨度很大，只有在通篇閱讀本文並且取得深刻認識之後，我們纔有可能完全答對本道題目。選項[A]這一說法的問題出在作者提到“A-K”，而不是到“M”，而且“ill-treated”這個單詞有點過了，因爲字母順序主義導致的不公平與主觀的虐待還是有很大區別的。選項[B]這一說法的問題出在程度的限定上。文章中提到許多傑出人士在字母排序中靠前，但是這隻能夠說這些人相比字母靠後的人可能更容易成功，而且西方世界的重要人士這個主語太大了，它也包括字母靠後的那些重要人士，而且用“gain a great deal”都顯得過於誇張。[C]這個說法與作者的意圖不同，作者只是在論證字母順序主義這樣一種不平等現象，但是並沒有提出要消除字母順序主義。只有選項[D]還比較合理，來自於首段的第二、三句。
難句解析：
1. 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。
【結構分析】 該句子的主句是“this refers to discrimination”。主語“this”和謂語“refers to”之間插入了介賓短語“for those”作狀語，“those”後跟着形容詞短語“unaware of…”作其定語，賓語“discrimination”後跟介賓短語“against those…”作定語，“those”後又有“whose”引導的定語從句來修飾。
2. 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。
【結構分析】 “and”將本句分爲兩個並列分句，第一個分句即“American president and vice-president have surnames”，第二個分句是“26 of…had surnames”。第一個分句的賓語“surnames”後是現在分詞結構“starting with”作定語;第二個分句賓語緊跟的介詞結構“in the first half of the alphabet”作定語。
全文翻譯：
在過去的一個世紀裡各種各樣的不公和歧視遭到了譴責或定爲非法。但是有一種隱蔽的不公和歧視形式還在盛行：字母順序主義。對於尚未意識到其危害的人來說，它指的是針對那些姓氏起始字母位於字母表後半部的人的歧視。
人們早已知道在客戶翻閱電話簿時，名叫AAAA的出租汽車公司要比Zodiac出租汽車公司有很大的優越性。至於在生活方面，一個名叫Adam Abbott的人較之一個名爲Zoë Zysman的人佔了多大的優勢就不那麼爲人所知了。英語的姓名雖然在字母表的前後兩部分的分佈相當平均，但傑出人物的姓名的首字母在A與K之間的卻多得可疑。
如此這般，美國的總統和副總統的姓氏分別是以B和C字母起頭。喬治·布什的前任有二十六位(包括其父)的姓氏均在字母表的前半部分，而姓氏在字母表後半部的卻僅有十六位。更加令人矚目的是七國首腦中有六位在其姓氏按字母表順序排名時靠前(Berlusconi，Blair，Bush，Chirac，Chrétien，Koizumi)。世界三大中央銀行家(Greenspan，Duisenberg，Hayami)的姓氏首字母全都接近字母表的上端，三人之中有一人名字儘管用的是日文，也是如此。世界上最富有的前五位情況也是如此(Gates，Buffett，Allen，Ellison，Albrecht)。
這僅僅是巧合嗎?按字母表順序排名靠後而吃虧的人在業餘時間憑空想出一種理論，認爲這種倒黴事兒很早就開始了。在幼兒學校第一年之始，老師爲了較爲容易記住學生的名字，就按字母表順序由前往後給學生排座位。因此近視的小Zysman就被插在了後排，這樣一來，粗心的教師提出的有助於提高學生能力的問題就很少會問到他。這時，按字母表順序排名靠後的學生還認爲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，因爲這種學生得到的個人關注較少，同時當衆講話時的信心也不足。
這種恥辱還在繼續着。在大學的畢業典禮上，姓名首字母是A、B、C的學生驕傲的首先領到獎品;等輪到Zysman們領獎品的時候，大多數人簡直都在鼾聲大作了。求職面試、選舉投票、會議發言或參加會議等諸多名單，也是按字母表順序排序，當人們費勁地向下查看時，興趣隨之索然。