2004年Text 2

　　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.

49. 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.

[答案] B

[解题思路]

　　文章第五段举了一个例子，"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"（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），说明由于报了太多名字，等轮到那些名字靠后的学生上台时，台下的观众早已失去兴趣，不由地开始打盹。稍微熟悉一点英语知识的人都知道ZZZ是表示打盹的常见符号，文章巧妙地把这个符号与以Z字母开头的学生上台联系起来，颇为生动有趣。

[题目译文]

作者所谓的"most people are literally having a ZZZ"（第三段第二行）是什么意思？
[A] 他们变得不耐烦了
[B] 他们在呼呼大睡
[C] 他们感觉自己受到了侮辱
[D] 他们在做猜词游戏