Section III Reading Comprehension

Part A

Directions:

Read the following four texts. Answer the questions below each text by choosing [A], [B], [C] or [D]. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (40 points)

Text 1

Hunting for a job late last year, lawyer Gant Redmon stumbled across CareerBuilder, a job database on the Internet. He searched it with no success but was attracted by the site’s “personal search agent.” It’s an interactive feature that lets visitors key in job criteria such as location, title, and salary, then E-mails them when a matching position is posted in the database. Redmon chose the keywords legal, intellectual property, and Washington, D.C. Three weeks later, he got his first notification of an opening. “I struck gold,” says Redmon, who E-mailed his resume to the employer and won a position as in-house counsel for a company.

With thousands of career-related sites on the Internet, finding promising openings can be time-consuming and inefficient. Search agents reduce the need for repeated visits to the databases. But although a search agent worked for Redmon, career experts see drawbacks. Narrowing your criteria, for example, may work against you: “Every time you answer a question you eliminate a possibility.” says one expert.

For any job search, you should start with a narrow concept—what you think you want to do -- then broaden it. “None of these programs do that,” says another expert. “There’s no career counseling implicit in all of this.” Instead, the best strategy is to use the agent as a kind of tip service to keep abreast of jobs in a particular database; when you get E-mail, consider it a reminder to check the database again. “I would not rely on agents for finding everything that is added to a database that might interest me,” says the author of a job-searching guide.

Some sites design their agents to tempt job hunters to return. When CareerSite’s agent sends out messages to those who have signed up for its service, for example, it includes only three potential jobs -- those it considers the best matches. There may be more matches in the database; job hunters will have to visit the site again to find them -- and they do. “On the day after we send our messages, we see a sharp increase in our traffic,” says Seth Peets, vice president of marketing for CareerSite.

Even those who aren’t hunting for jobs may find search agents worthwhile. Some use them to keep a close watch on the demand for their line of work or gather information on compensation to arm themselves when negotiating for a raise. Although happily employed, Redmon maintains his agent at CareerBuilder. “You always keep your eyes open,” he says. Working with a personal search agent means having another set of eyes looking out for you.

41. How did Redmon find his job?

[A] By searching openings in a job database.

[B] By posting a matching position in a database.

[C] By using a special service of a database.

[D] By E-mailing his resume to a database.

42. Which of the following can be a disadvantage of search agents?

[A] Lack of counseling.

[B] Limited number of visits.

[C] Lower efficiency.

[D] Fewer successful matches.

43. The expression “tip service” (Line 4, Paragraph 3) most probably means ________.

[A] advisory

[B] compensation

[C] interaction

[D] reminder

44. Why does CareerSite’s agent offer each job hunter only three job options?

[A] To focus on better job matches.

[B] To attract more returning visits.

[C] To reserve space for more messages.

[D] To increase the rate of success.

45. Which of the following is true according to the text?

[A] Personal search agents are indispensable to job-hunters.

[B] Some sites keep E-mailing job seekers to trace their demands.

[C] Personal search agents are also helpful to those already employed.

[D] Some agents stop sending information to people once they are employed.

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 Zo? 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.

46. What does the author intend to illustrate with AAA A cars and Zodiac 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.

47. 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 Zo? Zysman.

[C] Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names.

[D] Some form of discrimination is too subtle to recognize.

48. The 4th paragraph suggests that ________.

[A] questions are often put to the more intelligent students

[B] alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape from class

[C] teachers should pay attention to all of their students

[D] students should be seated according to their eyesight

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.

50. Which of the following is true according to the text?

[A] People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill-treated.

[B] VIPs in the Western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.

[C] The campaign to eliminate alphabetism still has a long way to go.

[D] Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional bias.

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