People of Burlington are being disturbed by the sound of bells. Four students from Burlington College of Higher Education are in the bell tower of the church and have made up their minds to    15   the bells nonstop for two weeks as a protest（抗议） against heavy trucks which run    16   through the narrow High Street.“They not only make it    17   to sleep at night, but they are doing damage（损害） to our houses and shops of historical   18  ,”
said John Norris, one of the protesters.
“ 19  we must have these noisy trucks on the roads,” said Jean Lacey, a biology student, “why don’t they build a new road that goes round the town? Burlington isn’t much more than a  20    village. Its streets were never meant for heavy traffic”.
　　Harry Fields also studying    21    said they wanted to make as much noise as possible to force the government officials to realize what everybody was having to stand. “Most of them don’t live here anyway,” he said, “they come in for meetings and the Town Hall is soundproof（隔音的）, so they probably don’t    22   . It’s high time they realized the problem.” The fourth student, Liza Vernum, said she thought the public were mostly on their side, and even if they weren’t they soon would be.
　　I asked if they were    23    that the police might come to stop them.
　　“Not really,” she said, “actually we are suitable bellringers. I mean we are assistant bellringers for the church. There is no    24    against practising.”
I left the church with the sound of the bells ringing in my ears.

We always want to prepare ourselves to the changes we may face when we go to a different country. Well, I have to say that for me, even after living in the US for one year and a half, I am still not used to the changes of weather, or how to manage my money well. There are many things that can give us culture shocks, but it is up to us whether to make it a big shock or a small one.
I know that changing schools was a big thing for me. It helped me to be stronger and open towards meeting new people.  Sometimes it feels like everybody is already in a group. This makes it harder for someone else to go in. But, it is not that hard. Actually many people know that you are from another country. They feel curious about your “history”, and would often think you are a different man.
Another thing that can produce a shock to me is the sudden change of weather. During the last couple of days, there was an ice-snow storm. It was the biggest in 15 years in the state of Missouri. It was raining ice, really, and you could hear sounds outside the window like little pieces of rocks hitting it, of course it was the ice. It started accumulating so heavily that the University had to close down for two days, and it got worse when it started snowing after the ice storm.
As international students, you may at times find something very difficult, but hey, anyone can beat and overcome it to make studying aboard an unforgettable experience.
【小题1】The author has been in the US for          .

We each have memory (记忆力).That’s why we still remember things after a long time.Some people have very good memories and they can easily learn many things in a shot time, but some people can only remember things when they say or do them again and again.Many of the great men of the world have surprising memories.
A good memory is a great help in learning a language.Everybody learns his mother language when he is a small child.He learns the sounds, remember them and then he learns to speak.Some children are living with their parents in foreign countries.They can learn two languages easily because they hear, remember and speak two languages every day.In school it is not so easy to learn a foreign language because the students have so little time for it, and they are busy with other subjects, too.
But your memory will become better and better when you do more and more exercises.
【小题1】Why can some people easily learn many things in a short time?

We had one class for computers when I was in school, which was also introduced new in school and all the students did not attend it. I took it because I had free period and was interested in taking it. In those days we could not image that computers will become so important in our lives otherwise most of the students would have joined the computer class.
Computers are beneficial for almost anyone and the present generation is growing in an atmosphere(氛围) where you need the computers for doing almost everything .If they are not made computer literate(精通) they will lag behind in all the activities. Nowadays almost all schools have some kind of computer courses for the students so that they learn the fundamentals of the computer. It will not be possible to do it if they don’t have computer classes. Most of the homes have personal computers now and most children are already aware of the basics before they join school.
Computing courses are also good for adults who are not familiar with the computer as most of the jobs which are available today have the use of computer in some way or the other. Adults who have not used the computer before are generally quite anxious, but an easy computing course will be able to change the way they think in a few weeks.
If you are interested, you can join a computing course which is longer and teaches you more than the basics, but you may have to spend more time in the completing course. They are very useful courses as it teaches you ways to use the fundamental programs which are typically used in various jobs.
It is also possible you may like to do the computing course for enjoyment as some of the classes are also free .There are courses which charge a fee for skills like graphic design and photo editing . They are a lot of fun too and may also be useful when you do a job , depending on the kind of career ，someone you choose or have . You will find these courses in the colleges, as well as online, if you already are familiar with the use of computer.
【小题1】Most of the students didn’t attend the computer course probably because         .