Question

A short Chinese man seems to be tallest in the world right now. Jack Ma (Ma Yun) is executive chairman(董事局主席)of Alibaba Group, a business –to-business online platform. On September 19, 2014,Alibaba went public on the New York Stock Exchange (紐約證券交易所), raising $25 billion through an IPO, the biggest in US history. Ma, a former English teacher, has become the richest man on the Chinese mainland.

Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang , Ma grew up as a happy kid. At the age of 12, he wanted to learn English. Every morning, he awoke at 5 am, cycled 40 minutes to a hotel near the West Lake where he could chat to foreign tourists. He did it for nine years, rain or shine.

The experience made him a fluent English speaker and also opened his eyes to the wider world. In a 1995 trip to the US, Ma was shown the Internet for the first time. He searched Yahoo using the word “Beer” ,and found that there was nothing in there about China. Seeing the chance, Ma returned to China and set up a website called China Pages without even knowing much about computers.

Four years later, 18 people including Ma, his wife and his friends founded Alibaba in Hangzhou. He believed in the Internet business potential(潛力)when few other Chinese did. People called him “ Crazy Jack Ma”. But 15 years later, Alibaba has developed into the world’s largest e-commerce(電子商務)company, owning popular shopping websites like Taobao and Tmall. It makes more profit online than Amazon and E-Bay combined.

No one thinks he’s mad now. Ma’s favourite line has been printed on Alibaba’s souvenir T-shirts. It reads: “Everybody should have a dream. What if that dream comes true?”

1.Why did Ma cycle to a hotel near the West Lake?

A. To work as a guide. B. To chat with foreigners.

C. To work part time. D. To do morning exercises.

2.When did Ma and his team found(建立) Alibaba?

A. In 1995. B. In 1998. C. In 1999. D. In 2014

3.Which is the right order?

a.Ma became the richest man on the Chinese mainland.

b.Ma became executive chairman of Alibaba Group.

c.Ma worked as an English teacher in Hangzhou.

d.Ma set up a website called China Pages.

A. c-b-d-a B. b-c-a-d C. d-c-b-a D. c-d-b-a

4.The title of the passage can be “_____________”.

A. Alibaba’s First IPO B. The World’s Largest E-commerce Company

C. Crazy Jack Ma D. The Internet Business Potential

Answer 1