单选题 Lei Shujie; a designer in Shanghai, piled up a wish list for Sunday, a quirky holiday dubbed "Singles Day" that has grown into China's—and possibly the world's—busiest online shopping day.
Clothes, a pillow, a cabinet to give to a friend—Lei put off buying until Sunday, when retailers promised discounts of up to 70 percent. "The prices are irresistible," she said.
Singles Day was created by Chinese college students in the 1990s as Valentine's Day for people without romantic partners. The timing was based on the date November 11, or "11.11"—four singles. Unattached young people would treat each other to dinner or give gifts to woo that special someone and end their single status.
That gift-giving helped to turn it into a major shopping event as sellers of everything from jewelry to TVs to cars saw a marketing opportunity and launched Singles Day sales.
Companies that are rushing to cash in on the holiday range from Alibaba, operator of China's biggest e-commerce platforms, to rival platforms such as 360buy, mom-and-pop companies that sell online and delivery services.
In the first 13 hours of selling on Sunday, the 50,000-plus merchants on Alibaba's consumer-oriented Tmall.com took in 10 billion yuan (US $1.6 billion), the company announced on its microblog account.
That would top the total of US$1.25 billion that research firm comScore said the US online retailers took last year on Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving in the US, and might make Singles Day the biggest e-commerce sales day on record.
"This is very, very big for us," Steve Wang, vice president of Tmall.com and head of website operations, said in a phone interview. The company said on its website that Sunday might be the "biggest e-shopping orgy ever".
China has the world's biggest population of internet users, with 538 million people online. Its population of online shoppers also is the biggest at 193 million, versus 170 million for the United States, according to Boston Consulting Group. It trails the US and Japan in online spending but, despite average incomes less than one-tenth the American level, is forecast to rise to first place as early as 2015.
Alibaba, founded by a former English teacher, Jack Ma, grew into one of the world's biggest e-commerce players by linking Chinese suppliers with Western manufacturers and retailers. It branched into consumer sales with the 2003 launch of Taobao, which operates Tmall.com. Alibaba also operates China's biggest online payment system, Alipay.
Tmall.com accounted for 45.1 percent of business-to-consumer online sales in China in the three months ending in September, according to Analysys International, a research firm in Beijing. 360buy was in second place with 17.4 percent. Boston Consulting Group said more products were sold through Taobao in 2010—about 48,000 per minute—than at China's top five bricks-and-mortar retailers combined.
"Alibaba has so many assets that they can integrate that it's hard to compete with them," said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, a technology consulting firm in Beijing.
Other rivals include clothing retailer Vancl.com, bookseller Dangdang.com, Amazon. corn's joint venture with a Chinese partner, and traditional retailers such as consumer electronics chain Suning that have expanded online. Walmart Stores, which operates 340 outlets in China, boosted its online presence last month by expanding its stake in online retailer Yihaodian to a controlling 51 percent.
In addition to its e-commerce platform used by other merchants, 360buy also is China's biggest online retailer, selling consumer electronics and other goods directly to customers.
On Tmall.com, goods ranged from clothes, books and furniture to discounts on restaurant meals and travel packages. An auto dealer in the southern city of Shangrao offered 23 percent off BMW 3-series luxury cars ordered on Sunday.
China's delivery companies had 800,000 employees working on Sunday, including 65,000 temporary workers hired for the holiday, the China Daily newspaper said, citing the country's delivery industry association.
One of the biggest, YTO Express in Shanghai, planned to have 30,000 vehicles on the road, the newspaper said, and expanded its daily handling capacity by 50 percent to 6 million packages for the day.

单选题 Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?

A. A New Version of Valentine's Day Created by Students.
B. Holiday Deals: An Online Shopping Spree.
C. Singles Day: China's Online Shopping Holiday.
D. Booming E-commerce in China.

单选题 What does "irresistible" in Paragraph 2 mean?

A. Enticing.
B. Repulsive.
C. Absorbing.
D. Immersive.

单选题 Which of the following may have set the biggest e-commerce sales day record?

A. US online sales on Cyber Monday last year.
B. Alibaba's sales on Singles Day.
C. Sales on Tmall.com on Singles Day.
D. 360buy on Singles Day.

单选题 Tmall.com accounted for 45.1% of business-to-consumer online sales in China ______.

A. in 2010
B. in September, October and November
C. in July, August and September
D. by the end of September

单选题 The following indicates figures of some enterprises. Which list corresponds to the order of the names: Tmall.com, 360buy, Taobao, Walmart Stores, and YTO?

A. 17.4%, about 48,000, 340 outlets, 6 million packages, US $1.6 billion.
B. US $1.6 billion, 17.4%, about 48,000, 6 million packages, 340 outlets.
C. 17.4%, about 48,000, 340 outlets, US $1.6 billion, 6 million packages.
D. US $1.6billion, 17.4%, about 48,000, 340 outlets, 6 million packages.