“USA? Britain? Which country is better to study in?” We often hear such discussions. As China opens its doors, studying abroad has become a dream for many Chinese students. They want to learn about the world.
It’s true that studying abroad can help students develop themselves. Language skills will improve and it may be easier to find jobs.
But there are problems that should be considered. Language is the first. Students must spend a lot of time learning another language and getting used to a different culture.
Students must also learn to live without parents’ care and deal with all kinds of things they haven’t had to do before, like looking after themselves. There are reports about Chinese students abroad sinking into an ocean of difficulties and giving up easily. When they have to take care of themselves, it is hard for students to study well.
Finally, studying abroad brings a heavy burden(负担) to the family. For most Chinese parents, the cost of studying abroad is very high. But is it worth it?
We know that there are many famous people who succeed in great things through their hard work in China. Liu Xiang is a good example. Once an American teacher invited him there but he refused. He kept training hard with his Chinese teacher. He surprised the world when he won a gold medal at the Athens Olympics. So when you wonder which country is better to study in, consider whether studying abroad is the right choice.
【小题1】The writer thinks          should be considered first before students study abroad.

阅读理解
A
At three a.m., Jack Mills was sitting at the controls of the mail train. The train was made up of 13 cars. At the end of the train, 71 mailmen sat sorting the mail. Inside the second car, there were only five mailmen and 128 bags full of five-pound notes. This train had run more than 100 years without being robbed(抢劫). At three minutes past three, Mills and his helper, David Whitby, saw a yellow warning light. They slowed the train, and then stopped. Whitby went to the telephone beside the track. It was out of order. Then he saw a man moving between the second and the third cars. Before Whitby cjould give a warning, he was knocked down by two men. Mills’ cars with all the mailmen had been disconnected by the robbers. At the bridge, the bags of money were unloaded from the train and thrown into waiting trucks. One of the robbers who obviously knew the schedules(时刻表) of all the trains kept looking at his watch. At 3:45 he said, “That will have to be enough.” The robbers drove away with more than 2,500,000 pounds.
1. The robbery took place______.
A. before 3:03                                                 B. in the early morning 
C. after three o’clock in the afternoon         D. after 3:45
2. The robbers_____ before the train stopped.
A. were all in the train                              B. forced Mills to stop the train
C. were waiting for the train to stop            D. ordered Mills to go on driving
3. Why didn’t the other mailmen help the mailmen in the second car when the robbery happened?
A. Because they were busy sorting the mail.
B. Because they didn’t want to help the mailmen in the second car.
C. Because the last eleven cars were separated from the front cars.
D. Because they knew nothing about the robbery.
4. One of the robbers kept looking at his watch because________.
A. he wanted to know the exact time           B. he enjoyed looking at his watch
C. he didn’t know when another train would come
D. they had to leave before another train came
5. Which of the following is NOT true?
A. The train was out of order.             
B. The telephone was put out of order by the robbers
C. Whitby had an assistant driver.       
D. The robbers carried the money away by truck.

Minimalism (简约主义) is a term that describes movements in various forms of art and design, especially visual art and music, where the work is reduced to its most basic features.
As for me, minimalism functions well not in art or design, but in my daily life.
When I was packing for university, I found it extremely difficult to let go of some of the things I owned. I knew I couldn’t take everything with me, but I kept asking myself “how could I possibly throw this away?”, “what if I need it one day?”, and “what about all of the memories?” Now that I’ve moved, and left that stuff behind, I don’t even miss it. Whether or not I got rid of it, it barely makes a bit of difference to me now.
I’ve learned that over time people forget, or their need for a particular object eventually disappears. Either they store it away or they get rid of it.
You might think nostalgically（怀旧的） about the toys you cared about when you were a child, but what is making you smile now is not the thing itself but the memory of it. 1’ve heard it a hundred times, “you don’t need things to make you happy.” It takes something life-changing like moving across the country to realize how true this is.
Speaking of which, for a lot of people, minimalism is about able to move. It’s about being able to go almost anywhere at any time because you don’t have many possessions to carry. When you keep things you don’t need they become a burden that ties you to a place. Moving to university was a good time to let go of a lot of stuff. And when I visit for the holidays, I’ll probably get rid of even more, to lighten the burden.
Of course there are exceptions. There are some things that are irreplaceable, very rare or expensive or we simply love and cherish for some reason or another, since we are humans. But after we keep those, how much is left that we don’t really need?
Hence, minimalism. And why does minimalism bring happiness? That was a bit of a roundabout way of saying that, it’s because what really makes me happy is freedom. And the key to freedom is minimalism because minimalism reduces our attachment to things.
Attachment to too many objects creates a great mess and can severely hold back our freedom to do whatever we want, while minimalism helps us start new projects, move, travel, learn new things, work, expand, be debt-free, be healthy – really living life to our full potential.
I left the nest to fly onwards and upwards, I can’t do it with old things weighing me down. And that is why I have adopted minimalism with open arms.
【小题1】In paragraph l, the writer gives the definition of minimalism to      .

After blogging regularly for two months, people felt they had better social support and friendship networks than those who didn’t blog. Blogging can help you feel less isolated, more connected to a community and more satisfied with your friendships. Both online and face-to-face, a new Australian research has found
Researchers James Baker and Professor Susan Moore from Swinburne have written two papers investigating the psychological benefits of blogging-regularly updating personal web pages with information that invites others to comment.
The first, published in the latest issue of the journal CyberPsychology and Behaviour.  compares the mental health of people intending to blog with that of people not planning to blog. Moore says the researchers messaged 600 MySpace users personally and directed them to an online survey. A total of 134 completed the questionnaire. 84 intended to blog and 50 didn’t.
“We found potential bloggers were less satisfied with their friendships and they felt less socially integrated; they didn’t feet as much part of a community as the people who weren’t interested in blogging …”Moore says. “It was as if they were saying ‘I’m going to do this blogging and it’s going to help me’.”
And it seemed to do the trick, as the researchers’ second study shows. This study which is yet to be published, was conducted two months later. The researchers sent out questionnaires(调查问卷)to the same group of MySpace users, this time 59 responded Bloggers reported a greater sense of belonging to a group of like-minded people and feeling more confident because they could rely on others for help. All respondents, whether or not they blogged, reported feeling less anxious, depressed and stressed after two months of online social networking.
“So going onto MySpace had lifted the mood of all participants in some way,” Moore says. “Maybe they’d just made more social connections.”
Moore acknowledges this is early research and hopes to follow a larger group of people for a longer period time to test some of the research findings.
66. What does the passage mainly tell us?
A. The mental health of bloggers.
B. Blogging improves one’s social life.
C. What kind of people are likely to blog.
D. Blogging has become more and more popular.
67. It can be inferred from the fourth paragraph that _________.
A. those who were not interested in blogging didn’t have good mental health
B. people were likely to become bloggers if they felt socially isolated
C. potential bloggers were those who had mental health problems
D. potential bloggers usually held a wrong view about blogging
68.The purpose of the second study is to find out _________.
A. what people do on MySpace
B. how many people became bloggers
C. how people felt after blogging for two months
D. how many people kept blogging after two months
69. The second study shows that________.
A. online social networking can do people good
B. only bloggers benefit from online social networking
C. not many potential bloggers became real bloggers
D. not all bloggers found the help they needed
70. The main purpose of people going onto MySpace is probably to _______.
A. exchange goods                  B. entertain themselves
C. seek help                           D. exchange views

四、阅读理解（共40分）
A
Linda Evans was my best friend －like the sister I never had. We did everything together: piano lessons, movies, swimming, and horseback riding.
When I was 13, my family moved away. Linda and I kept in touch through letters, and we saw each other on special time －like my wedding and Linda’s. Soon we were busy with children and moving to new homes, and we wrote less often. One day a card that I sent came back, stamped “Address Unknown”. I had no idea how to find Linda.
Over the years, I missed Linda very much, I wanted to share stories of my children and then grandchildren. And I needed to share my sadness when my brother and then mother died. There was an empty place in my heart that only a friend like Linda could fill.
One day I was reading a newspaper when I noticed a photo of a young woman who looked a lot like Linda and whose last name was Wagman－ Linda’s married name. “There must be thousands of Wagmans,” I thought, but I still wrote to her.
She called as soon as she got my letter. “Mrs. Tobin!” she said excitedly, “Linda Evans Wagman is my mother.”
Minutes later I heard a voice that I knew very much, even after 40 years, laughed and cried and caught up on each other’s lives. Now the empty place in my heart is filled, and there’s one thing that Linda and I know for sure: we won’t lose each other again!
56. The writer went to piano lessons with Linda Evans_______.
A. at the age of 13                 B. before she got married
C. after they moved to new homes     D. before the writer’s family moved away
57. They didn’t often write to each other because they_______.
A. got married                   B. had little time to do so
C. didn’t like writing letters        D. could see each other on special time
58. There was an empty place in the writer’s heart because she______.
A. was in trouble                
B. didn’t know Linda’s address
C. received the card that she sent    
D. didn’t have a friend like Linda to share her happiness or sadness
59. The writer was happy when she_________.
A. read the newspaper       
B. heard Linda’s voice on the phone 
C. met a young woman who looked a lot like Linda
D. wrote to the woman whose last name was Wagman