Ⅰ.阅读理解
Alibaba started taking the lead in China by connecting big Chinese manufacturers(制造商) with big buyers across the world. Its businesstobusiness site，Alibaba. com，allowed businesses to buy almost everything. Alibabut's advantage wasn't hard to judge: size. Alibaba is just big, even by Chinese standards. Its markets attract 231 million active buyers, 8 million sellers, 11.3 billion orders a year－and Alibaba_is_just_the_middleman. It encourages people to use its markets－not charging small sellers a percentage of the sale.
