“It is one of the few bright spots in the Chinese economy，” says Zeng Ming. He is talking about ecommerce. Mr. Zeng, the chief strategy officer for Alibaba, a giant Chinese Internet firm, predicts that digital transactions on his firm's platforms will top 1 trillion yuan($159 billion) this year—more than Amazon's and eBay's combined. That is a bold claim, but consider what happened on Singles Day.
Invented a few years ago by students and seized upon by digital marketers, this festival for lonely hearts falls annually on the 11th day of the 11th month(since 1 is the loneliest number). It is like St Valentine's Day, only worse. Singletons show each other with tender gifts: a barrage of pearls; a storm of sweets.
This November 11th they spent a surprising 19 billion yuan on Alibaba's online platforms—a fourfold increase on a year ago, and more than double what Americans spent online last Cyber Monday(the Monday after Thanksgiving, when retailers urge Americans to shop online). About 100 million purchases were logged, accounting for 80% of the packages shipped that day. Couriers(快递员) were buried in parcels.
So life is good for China's etailers. Then? Not exactly. The number of digital marketers is increasing and online sales are booming. Consumers are enjoying lower prices, better service and more variety. The problem? The pressure on profits in Chinese ecommerce is worse than in America, reckons Elinor Leung of CLSA, a broker. “Almost no one makes money，” she says.
The fiercest battles are being fought between online retailers and their bricksandmortar(实体的) rivals. Dangdang, a firm that resembles Amazon, and 360buy, another online retailer, have cut prices fiercely. Tencent, a cashrich online giant known for its instantmessaging software, is splashing out to win market share. 360buy has also just raised $400 millon from investors to do the same. But it is unclear how much longer such firms can burn through capital.What's the best title of this passage?
| A．The Ambition of Alibaba |
| B．Fierce Competition between Retailers |
| C．A New Festival for the Singles |
| D．Chinese Booming Ecommerce |
According to Zeng Ming, this year Alibaba will ________.
| A．outweigh Amazon and eBay in worldwide influence |
| B．rank top among all the Internet firms |
| C．have more than 159 billion dollars' sale |
| D．create another sales miracle just like the one on Singles Day |
How many packages were shipped on November 11th from Alibaba's online platforms?
| A．About 80 million. | B．About 100 million. |
| C．About 125 million. | D．About 180 million. |
What's the author's attitude towards online retailers in China?
| A．Optimistic. | B．Concerned. |
| C．Sympathetic. | D．Indifferent. |
My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister’s bureau（衣橱）and picked out a wonderful skirt. “Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago .She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion.” Well, I guess this is the occasion.
He took the skirt from me and put it on the bed. His hands touched the soft material for a moment, then he shut the drawer and turned to me, “Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you’re alive is a special occasion.”
I’m still thinking about his words, and they’ve changed my attitude to life. I’m spending more time with my family and friends and less time in committee meetings. Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experience to enjoy, not suffer. I’m trying to recognize these moments now and treasure them.
“Someday” and “one of these days” are being lost from my vocabulary. If it’s worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now . I’m not sure what my sister would have done if she had known she wouldn’t have tomorrow.
I think she would have called family members and a few close friends. She might have called a few former friends to apologize and mend her fences for past things. I like to think she would have gone out for a Chinese dinner, her favorite food.
If I knew that my hours were limited, those little things left undone would make me angry. Angry because I put off seeing good friends whom I was going to get in touch with someday. Angry and sorry because I didn’t tell my husband and daughter often enough how much I truly love them.
I’m trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that every day, every minute, and every breath truly, is…a gift from God.What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．Every day is a gift |
| B．My poor sister |
| C．Value friendship every day |
| D．Every day is an important occasion |
Jan bought the wonderful skirt but didn’t wear it, because( )
| A．She wanted to wear it on special occasions |
| B．She kept it as a special gift for someone else |
| C．She saved it until she grew older |
| D．She wanted to keep it as a sweet memory |
Which of the following is not the writer’s attitude to life?
| A．Spending more time staying with family every day. |
| B．Attending social activities as often as possible |
| C．Enjoying life and valuing every day. |
| D．Trying to get along well with friends |
The first newspaper was written by hand and put up on walls in public places. The earliest daily newspaper was started in Rome in 59 BC. In the 700s the world’s first printed newspaper was published. Europe didn’t have a regularly printed newspaper until 1609, when one was started in Germany.
The first regularly published newspaper in English was printed in Amsterdam in 1620. In 1621, an English newspaper was started in London and was published once a week. The first daily English newspaper was the Daily Courant, which came out in March 1702.
In 1690, Benjamin Harris printed the first American newspaper in Boston .But not long after it was first published, the government stopped the paper. In 1704, John Campbell started the Boston Newspaper, the first newspaper published daily in the American colonies（殖民地）. By 1760, the colonies had more than thirty daily newspapers.There are now about 1, 800 daily papers in the United States.
Today, as a group, newspapers in English have the largest circulation (发行量)in the world .But the largest circulation for a newspaper is that of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun . It sells more than eleven million copies every year.The first regularly printed European newspaper started in ________.
| A．Rome in 59 BC | B．Germany in 1609 |
| C．Amsterdam in 1620 | D．England in 1621 |
The first daily newspaper in English started in _________.
| A．1620 | B．1621 | C．1590 | D．1702 |
What does the author want to inform us?
| A．History of newspapers |
| B．History of daily newspapers |
| C．The beginning of newspapers |
| D．On reading newspapers |
Inventor，physicist，surveyor，astronomer，biologist，artist... Robert Hooke was all these and more. Some say he was the greatest experimental scientist of the seventeenth century. Once he worked with renowned（有名声的） men of science like Christian Huygens，Antony van Leeuwenhoek，Robert Boyle，Isaac Newton and the great architect，Christopher Wren.
Hooke’s early education began at home，under the guidance of his father. He entered Westminster School at the age of thirteen，and from there he went to Oxford，where he came in contact with some of the best scientists in England. Hooke impressed them with his skill at designing experiments and devising（发明） instruments. In 1662，at the age of twenty－eight，he was named Curator of Experiments of the newly formed Royal Society of London. Hooke accepted the job，even though he knew that it had no money to pay him!
Watching living things through the microscope was one of his favorite occupations. He devised a compound microscope for this purpose. One day while observing a cork (软木) under a microscope，he saw honeycomb－like structures. They were cells—the smallest units of life.In fact，it was Hooke who coined the term “cell” as the boxlike cells of the cork reminded him of the cells of a monastery(修道院)．
Perhaps because of his varied interests，Hooke often left experiments unfinished. Others took up where he left off and then claimed sole(独占的)credit. This sometimes led to quarrels with colleagues. One work that he finished was his book MICROGRAPHIA，a volume that reveals the immense potential of the microscope. The book also includes，among other things，ideas on gravity and light which may have helped scientists like Newton while they were developing their own theories on these phenomena.
Hooke made valuable contributions to astronomy too. A crater(陨石坑) on the moon is named after him in appreciation of his services to this branch of science.From the first paragraph，we can know that Robert Hooke __________.
| A．was famous because he worked with many scientists |
| B．liked making friends with the famous people |
| C．received a lot from other scientists |
| D．made contributions to many different fields |
Robert Hooke probably went to school in __________.
| A．1647 | B．1634 | C．1662 | D．1640 |
Robert Hooke made himself known to some of the best scientists in England by __________.
| A．learning by himself with his father’s help |
| B．introducing himself to them |
| C．designing experiments and instruments |
| D．refusing any reward from Royal Society of London |
Robert Hooke couldn’t get along well with his colleagues because __________.
| A．he couldn’t finish his work on time sometimes |
| B．he had all kinds of interests in his daily life |
| C．he was too proud to look up to them |
| D．the other scientists took the fruits of his experiments |
I am a good mother to three children. I have tried never to let my profession stand in the way of being a good parent.
I no longer consider myself the center of the universe. I show up. I listen. I try to laugh. I am a good friend to my husband. I have tried to make marriage vows(誓约) mean what they say. I am a good friend to my friends，and they to me. Without them，there would be nothing to say to you today.
So here’s what I want to tell you today：get a life. A real life，not a desire of the next promotion(提升)，the bigger paycheck and the larger house.
Get a life in which you are not alone. Find people you love，and who love you. And remember that love is not leisure(休闲) but work. Pick up the phone. Send an email. Write a letter. And realize that life is the best thing and that you have no business taking it for granted.
It is so easy to waste our lives，our days，our hours，and our minutes. It is so easy to exist instead of living. I learned to live many years ago. Something really，really bad happened to me，something that changed my life. If I had my choice，it would never have been changed at all. And what I learned from it is what，today，seems to be the hardest lesson of all.
I learned to love the journey，not the destination. I learned to look at all the good in the world and tried to give some of it back because I believed in it，completely and totally. And I tried to do that，in part，by telling others what I had learned.
By telling them this：read in the backyard with the sun on your face. Learn to be happy. And think of life as a deadly illness，because if you do，you will live with joy and passion(激情) as it ought to be lived.The best title of this passage probably is “________”．
| A．Love Your Friends | B．Live a Real Life |
| C．Don’t Waste Time | D．Be a Good Mother and Wife |
How did the author form her view of life?
| A．Through social experience. |
| B．By learning from her friends. |
| C．Through an unfortunate experience. |
| D．From her children and husband. |
By the underlined sentence “It is so easy to exist instead of living.” in the fifth paragraph，the author really means that people tend to________.
| A．make a living rather than live a real life |
| B．work rather than enjoy life |
| C．waste a lot in life |
| D．forget the most important lesson in life |
It can be inferred from the passage that________.
| A．the author is a success in personal life |
| B．the author doesn’t try her best to work well |
| C．the author spends all her time caring for her children |
| D．the author likes traveling very much |
Last year college students in America spent an estimated $700 on textbooks on average. The National Association of College Stores reported more than five billion dollars in sales of textbooks and course materials.
The association spokesman Charles Schmidt says electronic textbooks now just make up 2%～3% of sales. But he says that is expected to reach 10%～15% by 2012.
Online versions(版本) are now available for many of the most popular college textbooks. An etextbook can cost half the price of a new print textbook. But students usually lose access to them after the end of the term. And the books cannot be placed on more than one device(设备)，so they are not easy to share.
So what do students think of etextbooks？Administrators at Northwest Missouri State University wanted to find it out. Earlier this year they tested them with 500 students in 20 classes.
The university is unusual. It provides laptop computers for all 7,000 of its fulltime students. It does not require students to buy their textbooks either. They rent them to save money. The school aims to save even more by moving to etextbooks.
The students in the survey reported that downloading the books from the Internet was easy. They liked the idea of carrying lighter backpacks. And 56% said they were better able to find information.
But most found that using etextbooks did not change their study habits. And 60% felt they read more when they were reading on paper. In all，almost half the students said they still liked physical textbooks better.
But the survey found that cost could be a big influence.55% said they would choose etextbooks if using them meant their textbook rental fee would not increase.
Roger Von Holzen heads the Center for Information Technology in Education at Northwest Missouri State University. He tells us that administrators are disappointed with the etextbooks now available because the majority are not interactive(交互式的)．
He thinks growth will come when more digital books include video，activities，games and other ways to interact with the information. The technology is improving. But for now，most of the books are just words on a screen.Etextbooks are not better than paper books in that________.
| A．they cost more money |
| B．they’re difficult to carry |
| C．they’re not convenient to share |
| D．they can’t be downloaded from the Internet |
How many surveyed students think paper books make better reading?
| A．60%. | B．56%. | C．55%. | D．50%. |
It can be inferred from the text that in the future________.
| A．digital books will be more popular |
| B．the digital books available need improvement |
| C．free digital books are available online |
| D．digital books will replace print textbooks |
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