Alibaba started taking the lead in China by connecting big Chinese manufacturers(制造商) with big buyers across the world. Its business-to-business site, Alibaba.com allowed business to buy almost everything. Alibabas advantage wasnt hard to judge: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its market attracts 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year — and Alibaba is just the middleman. It encourages people to use its markets — not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
If you want a quick look into the influence of Alibaba on daily Chinese life, take my experience. I moved to Beijing a year ago and quickly got tired of visiting small stores across the crowded, polluted city of 20 million people in search of new electronics, bathroom furnishings, and anything else my wife wanted. “You’re looking for what exactly? Why not try it? ” my Chinese teacher asked me one day. With that, my wonderful new relationship with Alibaba began.
Alibaba’s original business-to-business model now is second to consumer buying. Chinese retail(零售) buying makes up 80% of Alibaba’s profit, and leading that group is Taobao, with 800 million items(物品) for sale and the most unbelievable selection of things you’ll ever find. TMall.com is Alibaba’s other big site, where you can find brand name goods from Nike and Unilever near the lowest prices.
What I have a hard time explaining to friends and family back in the U.S. is how China has gone beyond traditional shopping — big-box retailers especially —in favor of online purchases on Taobao and a few other sites. In smaller towns than Beiji
ng, where big retailers have not yet traveled, shopping online is shopping, and shopping is Taobao.
I have a list of some of my recent purchases on Taobao for a sense of how wide the marketplace is. Almost everything arrived a day or two after ordering with free shipping. I’m not even a big buyer, because I need friends to help me search the Chinese-language site. When I was searching my purchase history on my Chinese teacher’s iPad, which helps me buy goods, I looked through with great difficulty about 10 of her purchases for every one of mine.
1. Alibabas advantage mainly lies in .
A. its low price
B. its big size
C. its not charging small sellers
D. its business-to-business service
2.What can we learn from the underlined sentence in the passage?
A. Alibaba will continue to develop.
B. Alibaba stands out as the best online site.
C. Alibaba acts as a bridge between the buyers and sellers.
D. Alibaba is of middle size among all the online sites.
3.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. TMall.com provides more profit than Taobao.
B.The authors Chinese teacher is also an online purchase lover.
C. Taobao has no obvious advantage over other similar online sites.
D. Alibabas business-to-business service earns more money than retail.
4. What is the passage mainly about?
A. Shopping online in China is TaoBao.
B. How the author purchases online in China.
C. Shopping online goes beyond traditional shopping.
D. Alibaba influences peoples daily purchase in China.
As a leading Chinese language school and a cultural exchange institute in China, Global Exchange Education Center has been providing Mandarin (or Putonghua) language courses and cultural exchange programs for over a decade.
How to apply for our programs
■In order to apply for all of our programs, you must be
at least 18 years old.
in good health,
a senior high school graduate.
■Application Procedure for Chinese Language Programs
Step 1. Send us a completed application form by email or fax.
Step 2. Send us $ 60 application fee after receiving our email confirmation.
Step 3. Arrange the payment transfer.
Step 4. Plan the trip to Beijing.
■Application Procedure for Chinese Business Internship (实习）Program
Step 1. Send us a completed application form with your CV and personal statement for the program by email or fax.
Step 2. Send us $ 310, including $60 application fee and $ 250 internship placement deposit, after receiving our letter of acceptance for the program.
Step 3. Arrange final payment transfer after receiving our second confirmation.
Step 4. Plan the trip to Beijing.
■Personal Statement for applicants for Chinese Business Internship Program
You should state why you want to take this program and what your expectations of the program are. How you will make use of this program in your future career.
■ APPLICATION DEADLINES
The applications for most programs are reviewed on a rolling basis. You are encouraged to submit your application ahead of the application deadlines.
■Confirmation
Having received your application, Global Exchange Education Center usually sends out an email confirmation for the booking within 2-5 working days.
1.The text is probably written for ______.
A. junior high graduates B. international students
C. job seekers D. language trainers
2. If you apply for both of the programs, the total application fees will be ______.
A. $120 B. $310 C. $250 D. $ 370
3.Which of the following is not necessarily included i
n applicants personal statement?
A. Their purposes of taking the program.
B. Their expectations of the program.
C. Their future practice of the program.
D. Their feedbacks on the program.
The world’s richest man might seem to have it all，but Bill Gates has one regret．The self-made billionaire said he felt stupid for not knowing any foreign languages．
Speaking in his third Ask Me Anything question-and-answer session for online forum Reddit(红迪网)，the Microsoft founder said that he wished he spoke French，Arabic or Chinese．
He said：“I took Latin and Greek in high school and got A's and I guess it helps my vocabulary．I keep hoping to get time to study one of these—probably French because it is the easiest．I did Duolingo for a while but didn’t keep it up．”
Gates，who is worth $79．3 billion，praised Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for surprising an audience in Beijing when he spoke fluent Chinese，“Mark Zuckerberg amazingly learned Chinese and did a Q&A with Chinese students—unbelievable，isn’t it?”he said．
This isn’t the first time for Gates to admit his regret over language．He also showed his habits at home and personal insights．
L
ast February, Gates said he likes to do the dishes himself—to his own special standards every night and also told the interviewer that his wife，Melinda，would likely want Samuel L．Jackson to play her husband in a biopic(传记片)．
He also admitted that he would pick up a $100 bill if he found it on the street．
As he took the top spot on Forbes(福布斯)28th Annual Billionaires list last year for the fourth time，he said he is pretty basic when it comes to so ending on clothes and food，but that he enjoys investing in shoes and racquets(球拍)when he plays tennis．
When asked a life lesson he had to learn the hard way，the billionaire said staying up too late is a habit he is still trying to break．‘‘Don’t stay up too late even if the book is really exciting．You will regret it in the morning．Pam still working on this problem，”he said．
1.Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A. Bill Gates’Regret
B. The Richest Billionaire
C. An Interview with Bill Gates
D. How Bill Gates Succeeded
2.The underlined part in Paragraph 8 may actually mean that_____．
A. it is important to lay a good foundation of life
B. he never cares about buying food and clothing
C. food and clothing are basic needs for people’s life
D. he doesn’t spend much money on food and clothes
3.What advice did Bill Gates give?
A. Avoid staying up too late．
B. Be a good language learner．
C. Do the dishes yourself at home．
D. Pick up the $100 bills in the streets．
4.Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. Bill Gates is also the founder of Facebook
B. Bill Gates topped the list of Forbes 28 times．
C. Bill Gates was good at learning languages in high schoo1．
D. Bill Gates’wife wants Samuel to play a game with Gates．
假如你是校学生会主席李华，学校安排你下周末作为导游带领外籍教师Mr.Smith进行一次近郊游。请你用英语给Mr.Smith写一封电子邮件，包括以下内容：
1．自我介绍；
2．出游的时间、目的地等信息；
3．需要提前做的准备工作。
要求：1．词数100左右；
2．为使行文连贯，可根据内容要点适当增加细节。
Dear Mr. Smith,
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文,请你修改你同桌的以下作文。
文中共有10处语言错误,每句中最多有两处。错误涉及一个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（
）,并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线,并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1、每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2、只允许修改10处,多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Ms Karen, 38 years old, has been helped the old over the past 12 years. She often encourages her daughter—Celest, 10 years old—help the old people as well as. Visiting the seniors who have limited or no family support are what all of them do every weekend. When Celest was the baby, Ms Karen Kong brought her to visit the old so no one looked after her. Whatever, as time went by, it became a meaningful weekly affair and a time to get along for her daughter. She thinks it’s importance to teach children to love the old and hopes the virtue can be passed on.
阅读下面材料,在空白处填入一个适当的词，或括号内单词的正确形式（不多于3个单词）。
By “luxury(奢侈品)”, we mean "a pleasant and often expensive thing that is not necessary". From a historical point of view, things which were a luxury when they first came into being all became necessities later.
Anything, no matter 1. luxurious it is, will become a necessity, when it is widely used. This is true of many of the present luxuries, among which mobile phones, cars, computers and many other things 2. (include). It is known to all that the purpose of the development of science is 3. (make) things easy for the mankind, not for only 4. small number of people. 5. , the first thing to do after a new invention occurs is to spread it so as to benefit 6. many people as possible. In the course of the spread, the luxury becomes decreasingly luxurious until 7. the end it becomes a necessity. This is an objective law, and 8. can be an exception.
With the quick 9. (develop) of science and technology, the process for many things to become a necessity from a luxury will be greatly shortened. Anything that can be imagined will be invented and in no time becomes a necessity 10. (access) to ordinary people.
