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  3. Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious(阴险的)for

Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious(阴险的)for

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问题     Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been condemned or made illegal. But one insidious(阴险的)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 Zoe 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.
What can be inferred from the first three paragraphs?
选项 A、Customers often pay too much attention to companies’ names.
B、The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zysman.
C、Some form of discrimination is too subtle to be recognized.
D、In both East and West, names are essential to success.
答案C
解析 第1段提出“字母顺序主义”这一说法，第2、3段举例说明这种现象在生活中和名人身上的表现。也就是说，第2、3段都是为了证明第1段提出的论点。从几个关键的单词、词组“insidious”，“unaware”以及“less well known”可以推断出正确选项C)“某种歧视过于微妙以至于难以被人发现。”A)以偏概全，文中只是说顾客容易受到字母排序的影响从而注意到排名靠前的出租车公司。B)和D)过于绝对。
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