考研英语阅读命题思路透析和真题揭秘(57)

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 Zoeuml; 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.

在上个世纪里，各种不公和歧视都受到谴责或被定为非法。但是还有一种隐伏的歧视形式仍在大行其道：字母表主义。对那些还没有意识到这种劣势的人们来讲，这指的是对那些姓氏首字母排在字母表后半部分的人的歧视。

人们早就发现，当顾客翻看他们的电话号码本时。与一家叫Zodiac的出租车公司相比，一家名叫AAAA的出租车公司占有相当大的优势。但是，人们不太了解的是，名叫Adam Abbot的人在他的一生中比名叫Zoe Zysman的人占了多大的优势。英语名字均匀地分布在字母表的前后两部分里，然而很多出色人物的姓氏首字母都在A与K之间，这不能不引起人们的注意。

美国的总统和副总统的姓氏首字母分别是B和C；George Bush的前任中（包括他的父亲）有26个姓氏首字母排在字母表的前半部分，而只有16个在后半部分。更让人惊讶的是，七国首脑中有六个的姓氏首字母在字母顺序上占有优势（Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chretien and Koizumi）。世界三大中央银行家（Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami）的姓氏首字母也都位于字母表前列，尽管他们其中之一实际上用的是日文名。世界前五位富翁也是这样（Gates, Buffett, Allen, Ellison and Albrecht）。

这仅仅是巧合吗？排在字母表末尾的人闲着的时候胡编了一套说法，说问题其实很早就开始了。从幼儿园第一年开始的时候，老师们就按字母顺序给学生安排座位，为的是更容易记住学生的名字。所以近视眼的小Zysman被仍在了后排，而麻木不仁的老师们也很少问到他那些启发智力、提高能力的问题。当时受字母表之害的孩子还以为自己幸运，逃脱了老师的提问，其实这导致的结果是他们的学习成绩更差，在公众面前说话时也没不如别人自信，因为他们得到的个人关注更少。

这种羞辱并没有结束。大学毕业典礼上，姓氏以A、B、C打头的人自豪地受到了嘉奖，等轮到Zysman的时候，大多数人其实已经在打瞌睡了。求职面试的决选名单、选票的最后名单、会议发言人和出席者名单：所有这些往往都是按字母表顺序排列的，而人们在翻看这些东西的时候，到后面就兴趣全无了。