Editor's note: China is the top country of origin for international students in the US, with more than 274,000 Chinese students reportedly accounting for 31 percent of all international students at US universities. Many Chinese parents save up a lot of money for their children to pursue an overseas education. Is it worth spending big to study abroad? You are welcome to leave your comments.

    Arsa (Russia): I went to study abroad when I was 17. First year was a total waste as I met plenty of Russian students in my college and we spent most of our time shopping and hanging out at cafes, it wasn't until two years later that I realized that my English hadn't improved. I changed my mindset entirely and started studying hard. I ended up staying in UK for 10 years, which opened a lot of doors and introduced me to great people, so I'm all for studying abroad.

    Truth (US): There is an assumption that American education is the best in the world, so Chinese parents are pushing their kids to American colleges. And some are even sending their children overseas at junior or high school level. I often feel this is a mistake as the education a Chinese child gets in a foreign country is very different from what they are used to and they often struggle. Some students have trouble understanding their lecturers and their assignments keep coming back with poor scores.

【写作内容】

1). 用约30个单词写出上文概要；

2). 用约120个单词发表你的观点，内容包括：

( 1 )支持或反对“国外留学”；

( 2 )用2至3个理由或论据支撑你的观点。

    Why do people like what they like? Scientists have taken on the task of solving this mystery(奥秘)for ages. In the 1960s, psychologist Robert Zajonc conducted a series of experiments where he showed people nonsense words and random shapes. Afterward he asked his subjects which they preferred out of ever thing they had been shown. In study after study, people always chose the words and shapes they had seen the most. Their preference was for familiarity.

    This discovery was one of the most important findings in modern psychology. But the preference for familiarity has clear limits. People get tired of even their favorite songs and movies. On one hand, humans seek familiarity, because it makes them feel safe. On the other hand, people love the thrill of something new. This change between familiarity and discovery affects ns all the time- not just our preferences for pictures and songs, but also our preferences for ideas and even people.

    For that reason, the power of familiarity seems to be strongest when a person isn't expecting it. The opposite is also true: A surprise seems to work best when it contains some familiarity. Nobody knows this better than Raymond Loews, who is considered to be the "father of industrial design. He had a theory that he said could help artists sell anything to anyone. He called it MAYA --"Most Advanced Yet Acceptable""To sell something surprising, make it familiar; and to sell something familiar, make it surprising," he said.

    One of Loewy's final tasks was too add an element(要素)of familiarity to a truly new invention: NASA's first space station. Loewy's biggest contribution to the space station was that he insisted NASA install a window with a view of Earth. Today, tens of millions of people have seen this small detail in films about astronauts. It is hard to imagine a more perfect example of MAYA: a window to a new world can also show you home.

    Parents everywhere praise their kids. Jenn Berman, author of The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy and Confident Kids, says, "We've gone to the opposite extreme of a few decades ago when parents tended to be more strict." By giving kids a lot of praise, parents think they're building their children's confidence, when, in fact, it may be just the opposite. Too much praise can backfire and, when given in a way that's insincere, make kids afraid to try new things or take a risk for fear of not being able to stay on top where their parents' praise has put them.

    Still, don't go too far in the other direction. Not giving enough praise can be just as damaging gas giving too much. Kids will feel like they're not good enough or that you don't care and, as a result, may see no point in trying hard for their accomplishments.

    So what is the right amount of praise? Experts say that the quality of praise is more important than the quantity. If praise is sincere and focused on the effort not the outcome, you can give it as often as your child does something that deserves a verbal reward." We should especially recognize our children's efforts to push themselves and work hard to achieve a goal, "says Donahue, author of Parenting Without Fear: Letting Go of Worry and Focusing on What Really Matters." One thing to remember is that it's the process not the end product that matters."

    Your son may not be the best basketball player on his team. But if he's out there every day and playing hard, you should praise his effort regardless of whether his team wins or loses. Praising the effort and not the outcome can also mean recognizing your child when she has worked hard to clean the yard, cook dinner, or finish a book report. But whatever it is, praise should be given on a case-by-case basis and be proportionate(相称的)to the amount of effort your child has put into it.

    As is known to all, many things can be measured in terms of data. Sometimes data can indeed tell the truth. With the help of data we can easily know the price of a can of Coke in the supermarket or the result of a football match or the temperature of a certain day. Obviously, data can make our life easier and more comfortable. What is more important, data seem to be fairer than words or statements. If the data are true, we don't have to worry about being cheated. Nowadays, as lies exist in the world, data are expected to tell the truth. Therefore, many of us would rather believe data.

    On the other hand, if we judge things only by data from the so-called specific research, aren't we a little too narrow-minded? Many people often treat the so-called specific data unwisely just to make sure that they are making the right decisions. But sometimes we may find that data aren't everything. For example, how can you tell that somebody isn't a good student just because he or she doesn't get high marks in the final examination?

    There are many things in our life which cannot be measured by data. For example, the degree of your feeling happy in your life, the depth of love between you and your friends, and the faith you have in your country. We can only feel them in our hearts but can never express them in data.

    There is no doubt that analyzing the exact data is important to assessment of an actual event. But data should be dealt with wisely. We often get wrong data which mislead us. We should try our best to be wise thinkers. Remember, data have no feeling but we humans have. Data do not mean much to people if we do not have the abilities to analyze the data with the knowledge and confidence to judge whether they are true or false.

    Data are data after all. Life is much more colorful than the pale data. So give the cold data a warm heart and we'll find that the world is far more wonderful than the pale data can describe.

    It is natural for species of animals to become extinct over millions of years. But over the past 200 years, humans have caused the process to speed up. In recent years, the total number of threatened animal species has increased from 5205 to 5345. In most cases this is a result of human activity. How are people speeding up the process of animal extinction?

    First of all, people threaten the survival of animal species by destroying their habitats. As the human population grows, people keep building houses and factories in fields and woods. As they spread over the land, they destroy animals' homes. If the animals can't find a place to live, they die out. Sixteen kinds of Hawaiian birds have become extinct for this reason.

    Overhunting is another way that humans are causing some animals to become extinct. In some parts of the world, the parts of rare animals are worth a lot of money. For example, some people will pay more than $3,000 for a single rhino horn. This encourages hunters to kill rhinos even though the animal faces extinction.

    Humans are also polluting the air, water and soil. The effect of pollution on animal species can be complicated. For example, when waste from factories is dumped into rivers, the rivers become polluted. The fish that live in the rivers are poisoned, and the birds cannot lay strong eggs. And some, such as brown pelicans, have become rare and may die out.

    Finally, when humans introduce new species into certain environments, the animals that already live there become threatened and face extinction. For example, when European settlers brought rabbits and foxes to Australia, they killed off many native Australian animals, including the bandicoots. Eventually, the rabbits took over the bandicoot habitats. Now bandicoots are threatened with extinction in their own land.