On September 19, Alibaba went public (上市) on the New York Shock Exchange. It shows that Ma Yun has done his business successfully. A short Chinese man seems to be the tallest man in the world right now. Ma used to be an English teacher. So far, he has become the richest man on the Chinese mainland.

 Ma was born in Hangzhou and grew up as a happy kid. At the age of twelve, he found that English was very interesting. Every morning he got up at 5 a.m., and then ran to a hotel near the West Lake where he could communicate with foreign tourists in English. He did it for nine years.The experience made him become a fantastic English speaker and also opened his eyes to the wide world. In a 1995 trip to the US,  Ma was shown to the Internet for the first time. Seeing the chance, Ma returned to China and set up a website without knowing much about computers. Four years later, Ma set up Alibaba in Hangzhou. People called him “Crazy Jack Ma”. But fifteen years later, Alibaba has developed into the world's largest e-commerce (电子商务) company.

      Information Card

    Now you've finished three years of English study. There's one way to demonstrate(展示)

    what you've learned－take a test!

    Do you have any special methods you use to help you do better on a test? How well you do is often a matter of how well prepared you are. Here are some ways to make sure you're at your best on test days.

    Go to bed early. The night before a test is not the time to stay up watching TV. You want to be rested and wide-awake for test day.

    Have a good breakfast. Test day isn't a morning for donuts(面包圈). Nor is it a time to starve(挨饿) yourself. Eat plenty of low-sugar, high-energy food to keep your brain and body working their best.

    Be prepared. Make sure you have two pencils and anything else you were asked to bring.

    Watch the numbers. Make sure that the number of the items(项目) on your answer sheet matches the number of the question.

    Look over all the answer choices. Don't assume(假定) that choice A is correct until you've checked the others. You may find a better one. And it is wrong to eliminate(排除) any choice that you can see at once. You'll have a better chance of finding the right answer.

    Check the clock. Make sure you allow yourself enough time to answer every question and go back and check your answers. Don't spend too much time on any difficult question. Skip（跳

    读） it and come back to it later.

    Keep up with your schoolwork all year long. That's  how you get the skills you need for taking a test.

    Read the passage carefully and complete the table with only one word for each blank.

    Back in the twentieth century, robots seemed to have a big future, at least in the movies. Like the robots servants in the Star War movies. It looked as if one day robots would do all the boring or dangerous jobs while the humans sat around doing something more interesting. But people were also frightened that robots might become the bosses, not the servants.

    Has it happened? You're still unlikely to see a robot walking around your town but that doesn't mean they don't exist. Robots are used in car making, and in areas which are dangerous for humans, in bomb producing and deep-sea discovering, for example. We employ robots instead of doing the job ourselves. According to the report, there are 750,000 working robots in the world today.

    These working robots definitely look like machines but many scientists are now trying to make robots look more similar to humans. So what will robots be able to do by the year 2030? There are already plans to use robots in hospitals and old people's homes. Robot nurses will remind patients to take their medicine or tell a doctor if the patient needs attention. But many people are worried about the idea of robots looking after the old, the sick and the very young, separating them from important human contact. It may also create unemployment. It is really possible that robots will be used for many jobs in areas.

    But can we be sure that the next generation robots will always follow human orders? Or even destroy them? Or will we be able to create robots with emotions? Only the future will tell.

    There are long rivers, and there are famous rivers. The Nile(尼罗河)is the world's longest and most famous river. It runs 6,650 kilometers. Crocodiles and hippos(河马)live in its waters. Pyramids built by ancient Egyptians rise along its banks.

    The main branch of the Nile, the White Nile, starts just above Lake Victoria, the world's second largest fresh—water lake, in east central Africa. Then it flows to the north. At Sudan's capital, another great river called the Blue Nile joins the White Nile. Together, they form one very powerful river. Then it goes through Egypt's famous Nile Valley before reaching the Mediterranean Sea.

    Ancient Egypt, the first great African civilization(文明), started along the banks of the Nile more than 5, 000 years ago. Ancient Egypt ruled the Nile Valley for thousands of years. Great pyramids and temples were built on the banks and we can still visit them today.

    Without the rich farmland along the banks of the Nile, there might be no ancient Egypt civilization. Every year, the Nile flooded its banks. The floodwaters covered the banks with a rich soil. The Nile's banks were easy to farm and produce crops.

    The Nile also made a perfect highway for boats. The river runs north, but the wind on the river blows south. To go south, boaters put up sails to catch the wind. To go north, they took the sails down. Ancient people traded along the river for hundreds of miles.