本书是为全国师范院校英语专业学生编写的散文教材。针对师范院校学生的特点及将来的就业方向，本教材在审慎选材的同时，打破了以往文学类教材按年代或流派区分作家作品的惯例，以文章的主题为脉络，分15个单元。所选篇章不仅涵盖童年、心理、性格、教育等与师范类学生未来发展密切相关的内容，还包括自然科学和国民性研究等热点问题，也不乏诸如自然、旅游、地方特色等趣味性作品，同时也关注到女性作家的声音。这些散文的作者绝大多数都是知名人物，包括除被尊为“英国散文创始者”的培根、“英国文学泰斗”的约翰逊、“美国文学之父”的欧文等，还包括4位曾获得诺贝尔文学奖的作家。此外，本教材所选散文的作者还包括政治家、心理学家、著名编辑记者、节目主持人等。

本教材可供一个学期使用，使用者可根据学时和学生的具体情况灵活选用。本教材内容丰富，主题性强，涉猎面广，因此也适合具有中级以上英文水平的自学者使用。

Unit One Childhood

Discipline Is A Great Teacher

John Holt

Christmas

Floyd Dell

Unit Two Nature

Twins

Elwyn B.White

Snapping Turtle

Alan Devoe

Unit Three Personality

Solitude

Henry D.Thoreau

Advice to Youth

Mark Twain

Unit Four Travel

On Going a Journey

William Hazlitt

The Author's Account of Himself

Washington Irving

Unit Five Values

Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

William Faulkner

Tolerance

Edward M.Forster

Unit Six Psychology

Affectation

Samuel Johnson

The Harm That Good Men Do

Bertrand Russell

Unit Seven Education

HOW I Learned to Write

Benjamin Franklin

My First Introduction to the Classics

Winston Churchill

Unit Eight Art and Sport

Attitude

Garrison Keillor

The Summing Up

wuliam.S.Maugham

Unit Nine Views

Of Studies

Francis Bacon

Beauty

Ralph W.Emerson

Unit Ten Work

The Worker as Creator or Machine

Erich Fromm

Early Success

Francis S.Fitzgerald

Unit Eleven Citizenship

The Nature of Liberty

Henry L.Mencken

Americans

John Steinbeck

Unit Twelve Science

The Difference Between a Brain and a Computer

Isaac Asimov

Footnote on the Future

James Thurber

Unit Thirteen Feminity

Professions for Women

Virginia woolf

Are Women Human?

Dorothy L.Sayers

Unit Fourteen Local Color

Down and Out in Paris and London

George Orwell

The Subway Station

Gilbert Highet

Unit Fifteen Writing

Education by Poetry

Robert Frost

No Essays，Please!

Joseph W.Krutch