本书练习均来自与“学习目标”对应的各种英语考试的真题及模拟题，在选取文章时既注意与对应课文的笑联性，又注意语言的优雅、凝练和幽默，句型工整而又富于变化。本册重点在于其涵盖了文化、经济、哲学、艺术、体育、政洽、心理学、社会学、教育学、天文学等众多学科门类的相关内容，文章里蕴含着丰富的哲思和英语文化中独特的思维方式；语言文字精美独到，句型结构复杂多变而又不失简洁酣畅。扩充、辨析有关词汇，便学习者在领略语言艺术的同时，学会如何在英语、汉语间进行自由切换，为考生顺利通过各种英语考试打下扎实的基础。

语法查询索引
Lesson 1 Finding fossil man
Lesson 2 Spare that spider
Lesson 3 Matterhorn man
Lesson 4 Seeing hands
Lesson 5 Youth
Lesson 6 The sporting spirit
Lesson 7 Bats
Lesson 8 Trading standards
Lesson 9 Royal espionage
Lesson 10 Silicon Valley
Lesson 11 How to grow old
Lesson 12 Banks and their customers
Lesson 13 The search for oil
Lesson 14 The Butterfly Effect
Lesson 15 Secrecy in industry
Lesson 16 The modern city
Lesson 17 A man-made disease
Lesson 18 Porpoises
Lesson 19 The stuff of dreams
Lesson 20 Snake poison
Lesson 21 Williams S. Hart and the early "Western" film
Lesson 22 Knowledge and progress
Lesson 23 Bird flight
Lesson 24 Beauty
Lesson 25 Non-auditory effects of noise
Lesson 26 The past life of the earth
Lesson 27 The "Vasa"
Lesson 28 Patients and doctors
Lesson 29 The hovercraft
Lesson 30 Exploring the sea-floor
Lesson 31 The sculptor speaks
Lesson 32 Galileo reborn
Lesson 33 Education
Lesson 34 Adolescence
Lesson 35 Space odyssey
Lesson 36 The cost of government
Lesson 37 The process of aging
Lesson 38 Water and the traveller
Lesson 39 What every writer wants
Lesson 40 Waves
Lesson 41 Training elephants
Lesson 42 Recording an earthquake
Lesson 43 Are there strangers in space?
Lesson 44 Patterns of culture
Lesson 45 Of men and galaxies
Lesson 46 Hobbies
Lesson 47 The great escape
Lesson 48 Planning a share portfolio