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. |
