Question

In the ancient Arabic tale called Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the young hero Ali Baba says “Open Sesame” and a door to hidden treasures is opened to him. The old story had a special meaning for Ma Yun. He drew inspiration from it for Alibaba.com: China’s largest e-commerce(電子商務(wù)) website.

In 1995 Ma was working for US trading company, when he was introduced to the Internet. “I knew nothing about personal computers. I had never touched a keyboard before,” he said. He searched the word “beer” and saw that nothing came up about Chinese products.

Ma had an idea. Why not build a large Internet market to connect consumers(消費(fèi)者) and companies from all over the world? That way they could do business online.

That is how Alibaba began. His company grew quickly. But that doesn’ t mean everything went smoothly for Ma. Alibaba had a difficult time in 2000, when many Internet companies failed. He was successful because he managed to attract investment into his company.

But there is a deeper reason.

It is Ma’s attitude. “You deserve(值得) to live your dream,” he said. “Everyone thought I was daydreaming when I started. But the most important thing is that we believed in our dream from day one, to today and tomorrow. Of course we made many mistakes, but we never gave up hope.”

Besides the determination(決心), Ma is also smart. For him, success in business is like trying to catch a rabbit. “If there are nine rabbits, focus on catching one—don’t try and catch them all,” he said. “Change your ways if you need to, but don’t change the rabbit. Get one first, put it in your pocket and then catch the others.”

1.What does the word “it” in the first paragraph refer to（所指）?

A. The young hero Ali Baba.

B. The phrase “Open Sesame”.

C. The old story.

D. The website.

2.From Paragraph 2, we know that Ma Yun _____________.

A. was working in an Internet company in the US

B. started to learn about computers in 1995

C. was determined to buy and sell Chinese beer

D. wanted to produce Chinese personal computers.

3. What happened to Ma Yun in 2000?

A. He attracted investment during a difficult time.

B. His company grew quickly and smoothly.

C. His Internet company failed like many others.

D. He founded his own company.

4.What is the main idea of the last paragraph?

A. Ma’s good qualities.

B. The importance of working hard.

C. Ma’s hobby—catching rabbits.

D. The secrets of Ma’s success.

Answer 1