The latest surge came after China's largest e­commerce company forecast 45 to 49 per cent revenue (收入) growth in the year ending March, demonstrating how investments in online shopping are paying off. Shares in Alibaba, where Mr Ma is chairman, rose 13 per cent to a record high.

　　Alibaba and Tencent, which dominate online shopping and social media respectively, have ventured (冒险) deeper into new areas from cloud computing services to streaming music and video as the country's economy slows. Alibaba is capturing more digital advertising spending by incorporating (吸收) social elements such as video in its shopping sites.

　　Alibaba is holding meetings with investors this week. On Friday, the former English teacher said he wasn't going to discuss corporate forecasts. He took the stage instead to describe how his company had become effectively the world's 22nd largest economy - just after Argentina - in terms of transactions (交易) by never fearing to think big. Mr Ma, who said Alibaba revised 10­year plans annually, foresaw the company becoming the fifth­largest eventually by 2036 by serving burgeoning (迅速发展) Chinese middle classes, taking advantage of global trade and making use of its valuable data.

　　Ma's comments about the evolution of data­driven technology echoed those of Masayoshi Son, chairman of Japan's SoftBank. SoftBank - Alibaba's largest shareholder - has invested billions in companies such as ARM with the intention of staking out a leading position in the future Internet of Things.

　　"The Internet of Things is going to be big because in the past, machines 'drank' electricity，" Mr Ma told investors. "In the next 20 years, machines will 'drink' data. In the future, no company, no country, no business can survive without data."

　　语篇解读：本文介绍了阿里巴巴集团股票股价上涨13%，使董事长马云净身家在一天之内增加28亿美元，成为亚洲首富的故事。

　　8．The text is intended to tell us that ________.

　　A．China's economy is not satisfying

　　B．Jack Ma has become Asia's richest man

　　C．online shopping grows rapidly worldwide

　　D．Alibaba is the largest company in the world

　　解析：选B　主旨大意题。通览全文可知，本文介绍了阿里巴巴集团股票股价上涨13%，使董事长马云净身家在一天之内增加28亿美元，成为亚洲首富的故事。故选B项。

　　9．The underlined word "surge" in Paragraph 3 probably means "________"．

　　A．sudden increase B．rapid decline

　　C．dead time D．uncertainty

解析：选A　词义猜测题。根据第一段中的"Jack Ma's net worth increased by $2.8bn