第二步：精读重点段落

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

第一段：
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, said on Saturday its Singles' Day sales extravaganza hit $25.4 billion, smashing its own record from last year and cementing it as the world's biggest shopping event.

• extravaganza    n. 狂妄的言行；内容狂妄的作品；铺张华丽的表演
• cement     vt. 巩固，加强；用水泥涂；接合；vi. 粘牢；n. 水泥；接合剂

第十一段：
Investors closely watch the headline number, though some analysts say the way it is calculated is too opaque. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission launched a probe into Alibaba's accounting practices in 2016, including into its Singles Day data. That investigation is as yet unresolved.

• opaque     adj. 不透明的；不传热的；迟钝的；n. 不透明物；vt. 使不透明；使不反光
• probe    n. 探针；调查；vi. 调查；探测；vt. 探查；用探针探测；

第十四段：
The excitement around the shopping blitz, however, masks the challenges facing China's online retailers such as Alibaba and JD.com Inc, which are having to spend more to compete for shoppers in a broader economy where growth is slowing.

• blitz     n. 闪电战；vt. 以闪电战攻击；vi. 进行闪击；adj. 闪击的；凌厉的

第十八段：
This has sparked deals to buy bricks-and-mortar stores in China, and overseas tie-ups, especially in Southeast Asia. Technology, too, has been key, with virtual reality dressing rooms and live fashion shows to attract shoppers.

• bricks-and-mortar     实体企业

第十九段：
Alibaba also said it had turned 100,000 physical shops around China into "smart stores" for this year's event. Goods perused by people at the stores, but then bought and paid for on Alibaba's platforms, were added towards the sales total.

• peruse     vt. 详细考察；精读

（Tips: 双击文中单词可以查释义并加入你的生词本哦）

‘Singles Day’ China Shopping Festival Smashes Record with $25 Billion Haul

第一段：
Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, said on Saturday its Singles' Day sales extravaganza hit $25.4 billion, smashing its own record from last year and cementing it as the world's biggest shopping event.

• extravaganza    n. 狂妄的言行；内容狂妄的作品；铺张华丽的表演
• cement     vt. 巩固，加强；用水泥涂；接合；vi. 粘牢；n. 水泥；接合剂

第二段：
Once a celebration for China's lonely hearts, Singles' Day has become an annual 24-hour buying frenzy that exceeds the combined sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States, and acts as a barometer for China's consumers.

• frenzy     n. 狂暴；狂怒；暴怒；vt. 使发狂；使狂怒
• barometer     n. [气象] 气压计；晴雨表；显示变化的事物

第三段：
As tills shut midnight on Saturday, Alibaba's live sales ticker registered 168.3 billion yuan, up 39 percent from 120.7 billion yuan last year. The dollar figure was up more steeply due to the strength of the yuan against the greenback this year.

• ticker    n. 滴答响的东西；自动收报机；钟表；断续器
• steeply     adv. 陡峭地；险峻地

第四段：
The event began soon after a star-studded event in Shanghai late on Friday. As midnight hit, a deluge of pre-orders helped drive a billion dollars of sales on Alibaba's platforms in the first two minutes and $10 billion in just over an hour.

• star-studded     adj. 星罗棋布的；明星云集的
• deluge     n. 洪水；泛滥；暴雨；vt. 使泛滥；压倒

第五段：
"In terms of scale it just dwarfs any other event out there," said Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principal at China Market Research Group.

• dwarf     vi. 变矮小；n. 侏儒，矮子；vt. 使矮小；adj. 矮小的

第六段：
At just past the halfway mark, the headline gross merchandise volume swept past last year's dollar total just shy of $18 billion. Shortly afterward, sales surpassed the 2016 total in the local currency.

• surpass     vt. 超越；胜过，优于；非…所能办到或理解

第七段：
The event gets shoppers around China scouting for bargains and loading up their online shopping carts, while delivery men - and robots - brace for an estimated 1.5 billion parcels expected over the next six days.

• scout     n. 搜索，侦察；侦察员；侦察机；vt. 侦察；跟踪，监视；发现；vi. 侦察；巡视；嘲笑
• brace     n. 支柱；[语] 大括号；曲柄；vt. 支撑；振作起来；激励；撑牢；vi. 支持；打起精神；adj. 曲柄的

第八段：
"This is a big event for China, for the Chinese economy," Joseph Tsai, Alibaba's co-founder and vice chairman, said. "On Singles Day, shopping is a sport, it's entertainment."

第九段：
Tsai said rising disposable incomes of China's "over 300 million middle-class consumers" was helping drive the company's online sales — and would continue. "This powerful group is propelling the consumption of China," he said.

• propel     vt. 推进；驱使；激励；驱策

第十段：
The final total — more than the GDP of Iceland or Cameroon — leaves other shopping days in the shade. Cyber Monday in the United States saw $3.45 billion in online sales last year.

第十一段：
Investors closely watch the headline number, though some analysts say the way it is calculated is too opaque. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission launched a probe into Alibaba's accounting practices in 2016, including into its Singles Day data. That investigation is as yet unresolved.

• opaque     adj. 不透明的；不传热的；迟钝的；n. 不透明物；vt. 使不透明；使不反光
• probe    n. 探针；调查；vi. 调查；探测；vt. 探查；用探针探测；

第十二段：
Last year, the sales number rose by nearly a third at the eighth iteration of the event - though that was slower than the 60 percent increase logged in 2015.

• iteration     n. [数] 迭代；反复；重复

第十三段：
At Alibaba's Friday night gala, the company's co-founder and chairman, Jack Ma, hosted guests including the actress Nicole Kidman, singer Pharrell Williams and Chinese musicians and film stars such as Zhang Ziyi and Fan Bingbing.

第十四段：
The excitement around the shopping blitz, however, masks the challenges facing China's online retailers such as Alibaba and JD.com Inc, which are having to spend more to compete for shoppers in a broader economy where growth is slowing.

• blitz     n. 闪电战；vt. 以闪电战攻击；vi. 进行闪击；adj. 闪击的；凌厉的

第十五段：
"A lot of the lower hanging fruit has been picked and there's increased competition for a share of consumer spending," said Matthew Crabbe, Asia Pacific research director at Mintel. The sale did though beat his forecast of 20 percent growth.

第十六段：
Online retailers were being forced to push offline as well as overseas to attract new shoppers, and the overall online retail market was close to "saturation," raising questions about whether current rapid growth could be sustained.

第十七段：
"They're having to spill over out of the purely online realm into the wider consumer market," Crabbe said.

• realm     n. 领域，范围；王国

第十八段：
This has sparked deals to buy bricks-and-mortar stores in China, and overseas tie-ups, especially in Southeast Asia. Technology, too, has been key, with virtual reality dressing rooms and live fashion shows to attract shoppers.

• bricks-and-mortar     实体企业

第十九段：
Alibaba also said it had turned 100,000 physical shops around China into "smart stores" for this year's event. Goods perused by people at the stores, but then bought and paid for on Alibaba's platforms, were added towards the sales total.

• peruse     vt. 详细考察；精读

第二十段：
China Market Research Group's Cavender said brands were also increasingly making smaller price cuts to avoid "margins getting killed," and were often asking for deposits in advance. In previous years, prices were often halved.

• margin     n. 边缘；利润，余裕；页边的空白；vt. 加边于；加旁注于

第二十一段：
Fu Wenyue, a 23-year-old dresser in Shanghai, said offers this year were smaller but more "personalized" as brands used big data to hone their targets. Fu spent 4,000 yuan on clothes, cosmetics and kitchen utensils in pre-event sales, and kept shopping on the day.

• hone     n. 磨刀石；想念；抱怨；vt. 用磨刀石磨；磨炼，训练；提高
• utensil     n. （烹饪）用具，器皿

第二十二段：
"In actual fact, I think I spent even more than I did last year," she said.