本系列教材是适合国内大学本科学生使用的公共外语教材。每个单元围绕一个主题展开，与大学英语综合教程配套，以英语视听说为主要内容，侧重对学生听说能力的培养，配有视听光盘，并配有相应的习题进行针对性训练，是一套英语学习的综合教程，提高大学本科学生英语的综合应用能力。

Module 1
Text A The Wage War:Should America's Working Poor Get a Raise?
Paragraph Writing
Text B Empowering Women to End Worldwide Poverty
Selected StoryAir Force One and the Farmer
Module 2
Text A An Uncomfortable Bed
Paragraph Writing
Text B Hungry for Books
Selected StoryThe Husband Becoming His Wife's Son
Module 3
Text A The Winters and the Palmleys
Paragraph Writing
Text B Mo Yan's Nobel Lecture:Storytellers
Selected StorySwallowing a Horse
Module 4
Text A No Rules for the Rich:How China Spends Its New Wealth
Paragraph Writing
Text B Billionaire Death Race:Inside America's Cup and the World's Most Dangerous Sailboat
Selected StoryMaking the Big Decisions
Module 5
Text A How Animals Predict Earthquakes
Paragraph Writing
Text B The Boston Marathon Bombing:Keep Calm and Carry on
Selected StoryAlways Take and Never Give
Module 6
Text A Why Students Shouldn't Take Unpaid Internships
Paragraph Writing
Text B The Problem with Standardized Tests
Selected StoryThe Power of Embrace and Kiss
Module 7
Text A China's Middle Class Feels the Pinch of Rising Prices
Paragraph Writing
Text B Tencent's Worth
Selected StoryA Pitiful Husband and His High-handed Wife
Module 8
Text A So Many Books,So Little Time:A Passionate Reader's Story
Paragraph Writing
Text B Avoiding the Digital "Flock"
Selected StoryShame,Shame,Shame
Vocabulary
New Words
Phrases and Expressions