2017考研英語閱讀理解試題及解析(20)

    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 overZoë 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 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 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。
    解析
    26. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAAA cars andZodiac cars?
    作者用“AAAA汽車”和“Zodiac汽車”來例證什么?
    [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
    【考點】 判斷題。
    【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么問題。通常人們只有在需要證明某個方面的問題時才會引用例子，那么作者用這兩個例子究竟是為了說明什么問題呢?其實考生在讀完第一段之后就應(yīng)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(xiàn)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，舉這兩個例子不是為了說明哪一個品牌好，而是為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，我們可以推斷出什么?
    [A] In both East and West, names are essential to success。
    在東方和西方，名字對于成功來說都是至關(guān)重要的。
    [B] The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoë Zysman.
    Zoë Zysman的失敗應(yīng)該歸咎于字母表。
    [C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names。
    顧客通常很注重公司的名字。。
    [D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize。
    某種歧視過于微妙以至于難以被人發(fā)現(xiàn)。
    【答案】 D
    【考點】 文章結(jié)構(gòu)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(jié)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(xiàn)象在生活中的表現(xiàn)，第三段舉例說明“字母順序主義”在名人身上的體現(xiàn)。在上題中說過，舉例都是為了證明某個觀點，也就是說，第二和第三段都是為了證明第一段提出的論點。從幾個關(guān)鍵的單詞、詞組“insidious”，“unaware”以及“l(fā)ess well known”我們可以推斷出正確選項[D]“某種歧視過于微妙以至于難以被人發(fā)現(xiàn)?！?。選項[A]顯得過于絕對。將某一個人或者某一類人的失敗全部歸咎于字母是有失偏頗的，文章中只是說，由于名字靠后，有一些學(xué)生可能容易被老師忽視，從而導(dǎo)致學(xué)習(xí)的失敗，但是這不能說明都是字母的責(zé)任，而且這一點已經(jīng)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(xué)生經(jīng)常被提問。
    [B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape form class。
    姓氏在字母排序中處于劣勢的學(xué)生經(jīng)常逃課。
    [C] teachers should pay attention to all of their students。
    老師應(yīng)該關(guān)注所有的學(xué)生。
    [D] students should be seated according to their eyesight。
    學(xué)生應(yīng)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(jié)論。第四段認為“這不是巧合，按字母表順序排名靠后而吃虧的人在業(yè)余時間憑空想出一種理論認為這種倒霉事兒很早就開始了。在幼兒學(xué)校第一年之始，老師為了較為容易記住學(xué)生的名字，就按字母表順序由前往后給學(xué)生排座位。因此近視的小Zysman就被插在了后排，這樣一來，粗心的教師提出的有助于提高的問題就很少會問到他。這時，按字母表順序排名靠后的學(xué)生還認為他們能逃避老師的問題很幸運。然而，結(jié)果可能就是成績欠佳，因為這種學(xué)生得到的個人關(guān)注較少，同時當(dāng)眾講話時的信心也不足”。至此，作者再試圖論證其論點，即“按照字母排序是隱蔽的不平等”。而且這還導(dǎo)致了學(xué)生不能夠得到公平的教育機會，也就是在說，老師們該關(guān)注關(guān)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 areliterally having a ZZZ”(Lines 2-3, Paragraph 5)?
    “most people are literally having a ZZZ”(第五段第二、三行)是什么意思?
    [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. 他們忙于拼字游戲。。
    【答案】 B
    【考點】 推斷題。
    【分析】 看第五段“這種羞辱繼續(xù)著。在大學(xué)的畢業(yè)典禮上，姓名首字母是A、B、C的學(xué)生驕傲地首先領(lǐng)到獎品;等輪到Zysman們領(lǐng)獎品的時候，大多數(shù)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(xué)習(xí)中是否對西方文化背景知識給予足夠的關(guān)注。
    30. Which of the following is true according to the text?
    根據(jù)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。
    姓氏字母為N到Z的人經(jīng)常受到不公平的對待。
    [B] VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism。
    西方世界的重要人士從字母順序主義中獲益頗豐。
    [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(dǎo)致無意識的偏見。
    【答案】 D
    【考點】 事實細節(jié)題。
    【分析】 本題考查的是事實細節(jié)，而且選項跨度很大，只有在通篇閱讀本文并且取得深刻認識之后，我們才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，因為字母順序主義導(dǎo)致的不公平與主觀的虐待還是有很大區(qū)別的。選項[B]這一說法的問題出在程度的限定上。文章中提到許多杰出人士在字母排序中靠前，但是這只能夠說這些人相比字母靠后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，它也包括字母靠后的那些重要人士，而且用“gain a great deal”都顯得過于夸張。[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(xiàn)象，但是并沒有提出要消除字母順序主義。只有選項[D]還比較合理，來自于首段的第二、三句。