Attributes in multi stores

Hello,
I am not understanding one point about attributes and attribute sets in a multistore invironment.
Can attributes be shared in multistores?

I have been working under one site intensively for 5 month now. (site1)
This week end, I have installed the second site (site2). both magento sites are built in 1.4.2.0.
Site2 is pritty much empty besides two test products and two categories.
After the classic site mapping and synchro of the catalog on site2 this is the result.

site 1 = 200 products, 25 categories, 6 attribute sets, 40 attributes.
site 2 = 2 products, 2 categories, 0 attribute sets, 0 attributes.

I understand the power of completly seperating the two sites, but under my case I would like to pritty much replicate the two sites (at first) and seperate my catalog to have each 100 articles.
After brainstorming some ideas:

A) I am thinking of exporting (site1) by sql inside magento (site2) by sql, but how will this affect the attributes and attributes sets ? will it not double everything in my articles tab?

B) Another idea would be to reload referential mapping templates and synchronize referential settings (from site1) inside magento instances with the location and password of site1. Then changing the location and password to point to the location and password of site2 and exporting all data. Could this be a solution?

Thanks for any explanations on the proper procedures.