China Merchants Bank Co Ltd has teamed up with ride-hailing major Didi Kuaidi to provide automobile financing and expand its reach in China's booming mobile payment industry.
The two have inked a comprehensive partnership, which includes a strategic investment by the former in the latter. Under the partnership, CMB will become the first bricks-and-mortar bank that can offer in-app credit card payments to Didi users. At present, users of Didi can only choose third-party payment solutions like WeChat Payment and Alipay to pay cab fares.
Zhao Ju, vice-president of CMB, said the cooperation with Didi was an important step in its mobile Internet finance strategy. “CMB's mobile payment is going to enter a new chapter by leveraging Didi Kuaidi's vast user base," he said.
According to a report by China Internet Network Information Center earlier this month, Didi holds 87.2 percent of China's private car hailing market. The company said it has received 1.43 billion car-hailing requests on its platforms in 2015, which means 1.43 billion payments were made via smartphones.
CMB is expected to use Didi to reach the core users of China's mobile payment market. Jean Liu, president of Didi, said many of the expats prefer payment by credit card rather than Alipay or WeChat. "The new partnership will help improve service quality and customer loyalty," she said. The investment makes CMB part of Didi's existing investors, including Tencent Holdings Ltd, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and China Investment Corporation. Both of the companies declined to reveal the actual amount of the investment.
Liu, who showed up on Tuesday for the first time in public after her treatment for breast cancer, said the cooperation with CMB is for the long run and "the capital investment is only part of it".
Under the partnership, CMB and Didi will cooperate on a wide range of initiatives on financial services and online-to-offline cooperation. Apart from the in-app credit card payments, the two companies are going to launch joint credit cards in late February and automobile financing services for Didi's car owners. CMB's branches across China are expected to help Didi recruit more drivers.
"There is a lot of room for imagination in our partnership," Li said, adding in future people may use their CMB credit card reward points to pay for the ride on Didi.
Li Chao, an analyst with iResearch Consulting Group, said the partnership may not significantly boost CMB's mobile payment business. "Didi has educated the market for three years and its customers have formed the habit of paying by WeChat or Alipay. So I think CMB can only turn a very smart proportion of Didi users into its payment customer," he said. "But the move shows that China's traditional banking industry is finally thinking out of the box and looking for outside partners in Internet finance competition," he said.
Statistics from Big-Data Research showed that more than 90 percent of China's 9.3 trillion yuan ($1.41 trillion) worth of third party mobile payment market is donated by Alibaba and Tencent.
1.Which of the following sentences is true about Didi Kuaidi ?
A. The users of Didi can pay cab fare in cash.
B. At present, Didi holds the largest market of China's private car hailing business.
C. With several years of development, the users of Didi have abandoned the third-party payment.
D. CMB will become the most important investor of Didi.
2.Which of the following is not the purpose of CMB’s cooperation with Didi? .
A. CMB is expected to use Didi to reach the core users of China's mobile payment market.
B. Through the cooperation with Didi, CMB will help improve service quality and customer loyalty.
C. CMB will launch joint credit cards with Didi to expand its service.
D. CMB will turn a very large proportion of Didi users into its payment customer.
3.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. CMB's mobile payment is going to enter a new chapter.
B. China's traditional banking industry is facing fierce Internet finance competition.
C. CMB and Didi will have a online-to-offline cooperation.
D. Mobile payment market is donated by Alibaba and Tencent.
4.What’s Li Chao’ attitude towards the partnership between CMB and Didi?
A. cautious B. positive
C. indifferent D. disapproving
5.The main idea of this passage is that ___________.?
A. CMB develops partnership with Didi Kuaidi.
B. CMB is looking for outside partners in Internet finance competition.
C. Didi Kuaidi is going to enter a new chapter.
D. Alibaba and Tencent dominate the mobile payment market.
Paris
Passengers carried per day: 4.4m
Cost of ticket: 80p flat fare
Length: 131 miles Lines: 14 Stations: 297
In Paris there are pleasures for those who use the Metro(地铁) — many of them artistic. The graceful Art Nouveau dragon-fly entrances are just the most noticeable on a Metro system which celebrated its 100th anniversary by spending 30 million francs (£2.9million) on making its stations works of art. On my way home I pass Bonne Nouvelle station in the heart of Paris’s cinema district. There, during the cinema festival this summer, special lighting effects dot the platforms and films are projected onto the large advertising boards.
More than anything the metro is efficient. “When I worked on line 4”, says a retired driver, “we had exactly 30 minutes and 15 seconds to complete the journey. If it took any longer, they cut our pay.” But there are problems. Many Metro stations have too many stairs, and changing lines at big interchanges(交换) can be tiresome.
Moscow
Passengers carried per day: 9m
Cost of ticket: 12p
Length: 164 miles Lines: 11 Stations: 162
The first underground passage for the Moscow Metropolitan started in 1932. Three years later the trains started running. They haven’t stopped since— every 90 seconds or two minutes during rush hour, every five minutes the rest of the time, from 6 a.m. till 1 a. m. There may be a crowd of people but there is seldom a wait.
The trains take you through spacious and spotless stations. For tourists it’s a major sightseeing attraction: from Russian Art Deco to neo-classical, the Metro stations are not to be missed.
Tokyo
Passengers carried per day: 7m
Cost of ticket: 90p ~ £1.68
Length: 177 miles Lines: 12 Stations: 209
Trains do not just arrive on time in Tokyo. They stop right on the platform mark so that passengers can line up knowing exactly where the doors will open. Train driving is a respectful job for life, for which the applicants must pass a strict screening of health checks, interviews and written exams before they can put on the enviable uniform, cap and white gloves.
However, overcrowding means it is far from perfect. At rush hours, some stations employ part-time platform staff to push in passengers. Carriages can be filled to 184% of capacity(容量). The main reason for such conditions is that the Tokyo subway station system has only 15 miles of track for every 1 million people, compared to 36 on the London Underground. New lines are under construction, but at a cost of £500,000 per meter of rail. Progress has been slow.
Mexico City
Passengers carried per day: 4.2m
Cost of ticket: 11p flat fare
Length: 99 miles Lines: 11 Stations: 175
Fast, relatively safe, and very cheap, Mexico City’s underground is an ideal place of order and efficiency compared to the disorders above. The Mexican capital’s underground system is the biggest in the continent and one of the most subsidized (获得补助的) networks in the world.
The first trains leave the station at 5 a.m. and the last after midnight as the crowd move from the outskirts of the 20 million-strong megacity (大城市). Mexico City’s Metro also attracts a sizeable group of passengers who are unwilling to spend hours in traffic jams. There is a master plan to build new lines and extend existing one, but financial constraints (约束) complicated by the fact that the system runs through different jurisdicitons (管辖权) mean progress is slow.
1.Metro rail drivers in Paris must____.
A. keep to the train schedule strictly
B. complete the journey gracefully
C. stop right on the platform mark
D. understand the special lighting
2.In which two cities can travelling by underground be a sightseeing experience?
A. Moscow and Tokyo B. Paris and Moscow
C. Paris and Mexico City D. Tokyo and Mexico City
3.Which word may best describe the Tokyo underground trains?
A. Cheap B. Efficient C. Crowded D. Slow
4.Why is the expansion of the underground system in Mexico City slow?
A. The plan to extend existing lines is impractical.
B. The government offers little financial support.
C. People are unwilling to help build new lines.
D. The lines involve several authorities.
As we all know, children are our future, and it’s up to us to arm them with the tools to succeed. Sadly, today’s children are sometimes being armed with more dangerous tools like weapons, drugs and gangs in the USA. Once a relatively peaceful environment, many schoolyards of today are becoming unsafe for both students and teachers.
Home schools are available to give you choices. Home schooling provides top-quality education, flexibility and freedom to create your own schedule. At Sunny Home School we believe the choice should be yours.
Thanks to modern technology, home schooling information is becoming readily available across the nation. A recent study by the ITBS (Iowa Tests of Basic Skills) and TAP (Tests of Achievement and Proficiency) shows us that students of home schools do particularly well when compared with the nationwide average. In every subject at every grade level, students of home schooling scored obviously higher than those in public and private schools.
If you’re new to home schooling, you may be asking yourself, “Will home schools really work for my children?”
Fact: A nationwide study using a random selection of 1,516 families found students of home schooling to be scoring, on average, at or above the 80th percentile (百分位的第80位) in all areas, on standardized achievement test. (Note: The national average on standardized achievement test is the 50th percentile.)
Collectively, the staff at Sunny Home School brings 65 years of experience in home schooling curriculum. We’ve placed students in the top 2% of the nation in math and many are successfully moving on to college.
One study found that of the home schooled students, 94% said home education prepared them to be independent persons.
For more home schooling information, call us today toll free at (1800)542-8668.
1.We can learn from the first paragraph that ___.
A. many schools armed their students with weapons
B. violence and crime exist in many schoolyards
C. students use weapons to defend their schoolyards
D. weapons are more dangerous than drugs
2.All of the following are true of home schools EXCEPT___.
A. students are free to choose their courses
B. students do well in their important courses
C. they help students find jobs
D. they help students to be independent
3.The purpose of the passage above is___.
A. to give information about different schools
B. to compare home schools with other schools
C. to suggest a new method of school education
D. to persuade people to choose home schools
4.The passage mainly targets___.
A. students B. parents C. teachers D. adults
5.In which section of the newspaper can we the passage?
A. Finance B. Science
C. Advertisement D. Sport
完形填空
I have faith in that families are not only blood relatives, but sometimes people who turn up and love you when no one else will.
In May 1977, I was living in a Howard Johnson’s motel off Interstate 10 in Houston. My dad and I a room with two double beds and a bathroom was too for a 15-year-old girl and her father. Dad’s second marriage was and my stepmother had us both out of the house the previous week. Dad had no what to do with me. And that’s when my other family .
Barbara and Roland Beach took me into their home their only daughter, Su, my best friend, asked them to. I lived with them for the next seven years.
Barb washed my skirts the same as Su’s. She I had lunch money, doctors’ , help with homework and nightly hugs. Barbara and Roland attended every football game where Su and I were being cheerleaders. I could tell, for the Beaches there was no between Su and me; I was their daughter, too.
When Su and I college they kept my room the same for the entire four years I attended school. Recently, Barb presented me with an insurance policy they bought when I first moved in with them and had continued to pay on for 23 years.
The Beaches knew about me when they took me in – they had heard the whole story from Su. When I was seven, my mother died and from then on my father relied on other people to his kids. Before I went to live with the Beaches I had been convinced that life was entirely and that love was shaky and untrustworthy. I had believed that the only person who would take care of me was me.
the Beaches, I would have become a bitter, selfish and pessimistic woman. They gave me a home that allowed me to grow and .They kept me from being paralyzed by my , and they gave me the confidence to open my heart.
I family. For me, it wasn’t the family that was there on the day I was , but the one that was there for me when I was living in a Howard Johnson’s on Interstate 10.
1.A．lived B．shared C．possessed D．bought
2.A．crowd B．convenient C．small D．limited
3.A．in trouble B．in sight C．in place D．in parts
4.A．drove B．removed C．kicked D．knocked
5.A．plan B．choice C．chance D．idea
6.A．looked over B．showed up C．jumped out D．came across
7.A．so B．because C．until D．while
8.A．worked out B．called up C．watched out D．made sure
9.A．approaches B. concentrations C. commitments D. appointments
10.A．As long as B．As far as C．As soon as D．As many as
11.A．change B．problem C．conflict D．difference
12.A．set off B．left for C．entered into D．admitted into
13.A．all B．little C．something D．nothing
14.A．supply B．teach C．encourage D．raise
15.A．different B．unfair C．easy D．hopeful
16.A．Thanks to B．In spite of C．Except for D．But for
17.A．survive B．change C．happy D．operate
18.A．choice B．failure C．past D．present
19.A．pick up B．rely on C．center on D．believe in
20.A．born B．grown C．accepted D．deserted
— Do you guess living in such a quiet countryside has advantages?
— ___.
A.Well, that depends B. Yes, it is
C. Yes, perfectly D. Nothing at all
—The weather turns out to be fine.
— We can depend on ___ that the goods will be shipped to the flooded area on time.
A. it B. / C. this D. which
