Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination have been made illegal. But one popular form continues to exist, that is alphabetism (字母排序法). This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames(姓氏)begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.
It has long been known that the cars of a taxi firm called AAAA have a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers look through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbot has in life over Zoe Zysman. English names are fairly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a quite large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.
Thus the American presidents and vice-presidents have surnames starting with B and  C separately and 26 of those before George Bush took office (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. The same case are the world's five richest men ( Gates, Buffet and so on) .
Can this merely happen by chance? At the start of the first year in primary school, teachers seat pupils, alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. So shortsighted and small-sized Zysman junior gets stuck in the back row, and is seldom asked the improving questions by those teachers. At that time the alphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet the result may be worse qualifications, because they get less attention, as well as less confidence in speaking publicly.
The unfairness continues. At university graduation parties, the ABCs proudly get their awards first. However, by the time they reach the Zysmans most people are a little tired. Lists of job interviews and conference speakers and attendees all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their readers lose interest as they plough through them.
【小題1】What does the author intend to show with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?

A．An example of competition of two kinds of cars.
B．Some advantages of AAAA cars in the taxi firm.
C．An example of unfairness caused by alphabetism.
D．Some disadvantages of Zodiac cars in the taxi firm.
【小題2】What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
A．The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoe Zysman.
B．In both East and West, names are important to success.
C．Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies' names.
D．The discrimination in alphabetism can be found in many areas.
【小題3】The fourth paragraph suggests that         .
A．a(chǎn)lphabetically disadvantaged often escape from class
B．teachers should pay equal attention to all their students
C．questions are often put to the more intelligent students
D．students should be seated according to their eyesight
【小題4】Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A．VIPs in the western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.
B．People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often misunderstood.
C．Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional unfairness.
D．The movement to get rid of alphabetism still has a long way to go.


【小題1】C
【小題2】D
【小題3】B
【小題4】C

解析試題分析：本文作者介紹了按字母順序排列對(duì)姓氏首字母在字母表后半部分不利。作者列舉了許多例子來(lái)說(shuō)明這種情況。
【小題1】細(xì)節(jié)題：根據(jù)第二段第一句“It has long been known that the cars of a taxi firm called AAAA have a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers look through their phone directories. ”人們?cè)缇椭獣砸粋�(gè)叫4個(gè)A的汽車公司比一個(gè)叫Zodiac的汽車公司在做生意時(shí)享 有便利，因?yàn)轭櫩驮诜措娫挷緯r(shí)，4個(gè)A汽車的名字排在前面，所以這是一種看似平等，實(shí) 際上并不平等的安排。故選C。
【小題2】推理題：閱讀前三段內(nèi)容可知第一段講按字母順序排列對(duì)姓氏首字母在字母表后半部分不利。第二段舉兩個(gè)例子， 一個(gè)是以A開(kāi)頭的汽車公司，另一個(gè)是以A開(kāi)頭的人名，都比以Z開(kāi)頭的汽車公司和人名 享有更多的好處，并指出有許多杰出人士的姓氏首字母都在A到K之間。第三段講美國(guó)的總統(tǒng)、副總統(tǒng)、7個(gè)經(jīng)濟(jì)強(qiáng)國(guó)的政府首腦、世界上3個(gè)頂尖的銀行家以及世界上最有錢的5個(gè)人的名字都在字母表的前一半。故選D。
【小題3】推理題：閱讀第四段內(nèi)容可知老師把學(xué)生按字母順序排座位，結(jié)果，名字在字母表后面的學(xué)生雖有近視也得坐在后面，這樣不利于學(xué)生的學(xué)習(xí)，也會(huì)影響他們以后在公眾場(chǎng)合講話的自信心。這反過(guò)來(lái)說(shuō)明教師應(yīng)當(dāng)關(guān)心每個(gè)學(xué)生，故C項(xiàng)正確。故選B。
【小題4】細(xì)節(jié)題：文章的前4段都講到了按字母排列而引起的對(duì)一些人的不公平，所以C對(duì)。“按字 母順序排列會(huì)導(dǎo)致非故意的不公正”。故選C。
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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源： 題型：閱讀理解

There is an endless supply of stories about sleepwalkers(夢(mèng)游者). People have been said to climb on roofs, solve mathematical problems, write music, walk through windows, and do murder in their sleep.
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