Ma Yun was born on October 15,1964 in Hangzhou， Zhejiang Province. He is the founder (创始人)of Alibaba Group.

At the age of 10， Ma Yun took an interest in English. Each morning， he rode his bike to Hangzhou Hotel to talk with foreigners. In 1988， he became an English teacher. Then Ma Yun met Bill Aho， an American businessman， in Hangzhou. In 1995， he visited the United States for the first time. He stayed with Mr. Aho's family. There， he was introduced to the World Wide Web. Then he returned home and set up one of China's first web companies(公司)， China Yellowpages in the same year. On February 21,1999， he founded Alibaba. He chose Alibaba as the name because everyone knew the story of Alibaba.

Ma Yun had problems along the way. But his hard work made Alibaba an online success.

    Ma Hua graduated from Fudan University. He had a good career in IT and a great life in Shanghai, but he felt there was something missing from his life. He wanted to help others to improve their lives, so in March 2013 he gave up his job. Then he moved to south-west China to do voluntary work in a village primary school.

    He soon became an important member of the local people. In his class, he painted pictures on the walls to help students remember English words. He also spent his money building a playground for the children.

Ma Hua quickly got used to his new life. He got great satisfaction(满意) from his work and felt very happy, even though life there was hard—he had to melt(融化) ice for water and grow vegetables for food. When he was free, he wrote poems describing the peace and beauty around him. Sometimes he would go walking in the mountains and enjoy the beautiful view. Sadly Ma Hua was killed in a car accident in July 2014 at the age of 31. His death was a great loss to all those who knew him, but it is a comfort to know that he lived happily, doing what he loved and enriching the lives of others.

    Last December it was very cold and it snowed a lot. One Saturday, John was playing on the hill near his house with some friends. Suddenly, he fell over and hurt his leg. His friends ran to tell his mother. His mother and brother took him to the hospital.

    The doctor said John had to stay in hospital for four to five weeks. John liked the doctors and the other children in the hospital because they were very friendly. At first he was happy because he didn't have to go to school. He laughed at all of his friends. They had to do a lot of homework. He enjoyed listening to music and watching his favourite television programmes all day.

    But soon the Christmas holidays started. John was still in hospital. He was tired of watching television and listening to his CDs and he wanted to go home. "This is ▲" he thought. He felt sad so he started to cry.

    But then a man came to his room with a bag of presents and a Christmas tree. John knew him from the television. He was a famous sports star who was visiting all the sick (生病的) children. And the man was not the only person who came that day. All the students from John's class came to visit him. And his maths teacher brought him his "favourite" present — some maths homework!

    A lion was getting tired of hunting. He called all animals and passed an order. "Every day one of you should come by yourself as my food." All animals started to obey this order.

    It was the rabbit's day. The rabbit was very sad. As he was going to the lion's den (兽穴), he came across an old well (井). He looked into it. It was very deep and dangerous. He made a plan in his mind.

    The lion was very angry that no animal had come that day. The rabbit slowly came towards the lion. The lion shouted, "Why are you late?" The rabbit humbly (低声下气地) replied, "On my way another lion chased me. I got away with much difficulty to give my life to you."

    The lion was pleased with the rabbit. But the thought of another lion in the jungle made him angry. The lion shouted, "Do you know where he lives?" The rabbit replied, "Yes, sir. Please come with me."

    The rabbit took the lion to the old well. He said, "Sir, that lion lives in this well." The lion looked into the well. He mistook his reflection (倒影) for another lion. He shouted and there was an echo.

    He thought that the other lion was shouting too and jumped into the well. That was the end of the lion.

    A farmer had a cow. He took very good care of his cow. One day it was ill, the farmer was very worried. He telephoned the vet.

    "What's the problem?" the vet asked the farmer when he arrived. "My cow is ill," said the farmer, "I don't know what's the matter with her. She's lying down and doesn't eat. She's making a strange noise." The vet looked at the cow. "She's certainly ill," he said, "and she needs to take some strong medicine." He took a bottle out of his box, put two pills into his hand and said, "Give her these. The pills should make her better." "How should I give them to her? The farmer asked. The vet gave him a tube(管子) and said, "Put this tube in her mouth, then put the pills in the tube and blow. That'll make it."

    The next day the vet came to the farm again. The farmer was sitting outside his house and looked worried. "How's your cow?" asked the vet. "No change," the farmer said, "and I'm feeling very strange myself."

    "Oh?" the vet said, "Why?"

    "I did what you said." the farmer answered, "I put the tube in the cow's mouth and then put the two pills in it."

    "And?" the vet asked.

    "The cow blew first." the farmer said.