本教材是教育部推荐使用大学外语类教材，全国高等学校第二届优秀教材特等奖，国家教委高等学校第二届优秀教材一等奖。
《大学英语》系列教材的再修订，以《大学英语课程教学要求(试行)》为依据，历经三年调研，汲取全国数百所高校师生的建议和意见，旨在发扬我国大学英语教学的优良传统，推广成功经验，为新时期人才培养再作贡献。
本书为预备级第3版，在第一次修订的基础上进一步选用时代感较强、故事情节动人的文章取代内容相对陈旧的课文。丰富了练习类型(如增加了词汇练习和翻译练习)，以帮助学生在提高阅读理解能力的同时适当扩大词汇量。
1.The Loch Ness Monster
2.What Age7
3.A SARS Hero
4."Where's the Beef?"
5.What Happened to the Cabbages?
6.Why Are They So Hospitable?
7.A True Mystery Story
8.Robinson Crusoe
9.A Lost Ring
10.Help !
11.Sir Walter Raleigh
12.The Cobbler and the Banker
13.The Happiest Man
14.It's a Small World
15.Tornadoes
16.Four Beautiful Things about Hawaii
17.A Shot in the Dark
18.An Unusual Notice
19.Ants Are Smarter Than We Think
20.Christmas
21.What Time Is It?
22.How Tea Came to Asia
23.Wrong Number
24.A Clumsy World for Lefty
25.A Letter to a Friend
26.The Day the Volcano Blew Up
27.Advice for a Bright New Year
28.He Made Us a Team
29.Treasure from Flavius
30.The Unreality of TV
31.The Dreamer
32.The Finest Treasure
33.A Time for Courage
34.A Valuable Hour
35.Clocks Through Time
36.Pity for a Stranger
37.Does It Mean Giving Up Our Heritage?
38.Summer Is Festival Time in Britain
39.Be More Careful When Using Water
40.Stick Together or We'll Be All Alone
41.Miss Evans, of Boston, America
42.Let's Be Grateful for Small Things
43.Hunting Celebrities
44.Advantageous or Disadvantageous?
45.Do Those Things Make You Happy?
46.Should We Make Friends with Our Worst Nightmare?
47.Too Many Choices
48.Duty
Key to the Exercises
Vocabulary
