本教材在内容的选择上新颖独特，既保留了传统阅读教材的广泛性，又融入了英语文学的经典性；既有英语文学中的经典作品，又有反映时代信息的时文选粹；既有英语名家名篇，又有中国人的优秀英文作品；既有正文学习又有补充阅读；既有语言方面的练习，又有阅读技能的讲解，经典性、广泛性、趣味性和实用性相辅相成、有机地结合在一起。因此，本教材既能提高学生的英语语言水平，又能提高他们的文学文化修养。同时也能提高他们的英语学习兴趣和民族自豪感。

Section One Fine Works on Current Issues

 Unit 1 Modern Technology and Life

Lesson One The Rise of Baidu

 David Barboza

 Reading Skill One: Guessing the Meaning of Unknown

 Words from Context Clues (Part One)

Lesson Two Striking a Balance between Privacy and Convenience

 Douglas C. Curling

Lesson Three To Clone or Not to Clone, Is Than the Question?

 Supplementary Reading One

 Strategic Cost Management

 Unit 2 China in the Eyes of Westerners

Lesson Four Shanghai's Boom: A Building Frenzy

 Howard W. French

 Reading Skill Two: Guessing the Meaning of Unknown

 Words from Context Clues (Part Two)

Lesson Five China Competes with West in Aid to Its Neighbors

 Jane Perlez

 Supplementary Reading Two

 Chinese New Year--A Promise of Peace and Prosperity

 William N. Brown

 Unit 3 Glimpse of the West

Lesson Six Political Parties in the United States

 Reading Skill Three : Guessing the Meaning of Unfamiliar

 Vocabulary from Word-formation

 Clues (compounding and conversion)

Lesson Seven Christmas in New Zealand

 Supplementary Reading Three

 Impressions of America

 Oscar Wilde

 Unit 4 Wisdom in Life

Lesson Eight The Shadows

 Bruce Hutchison

 Reading Skill Four : Guessing the Meaning of Unfamiliar

 Vocabulary from Word-formation

 Clues (stems, prefixes, and suffixes):

 Part One

Lesson Nine Two Truths to Live By

 Alexander M. Schindler

 Supplementary Reading Four

 A Simple Truth about Happiness

 Dennis Prager

Section Two English and Chinese Classics

 Unit 5 English Essays

Lesson Ten Text 1 Of Beauty

 Francis Bacon

 Text 2 Of Studies

 Francis Bacon

 Reading Skill Five: Guessing the Meaning of Unfamiliar

 Vocabulary from Word-formation Clues

 (stems, prefixes, and suffixes): Part Two

Lesson Eleven The Acorn-Gatherer

 Richard Jefferics

 Supplementary Reading Five

 French and English

 G. K. Chesterton

 Unit 6 English Poems

Lesson Twelve Poem 1 Sonnet 18

 William Shakespeare

 Poem 2 Song to Celia

 Ben Johnson

 Poem 3 A Red, Red Rose

 Robert Burns

 Reading Skill Six: Poem Appreciation

 Supplementary Reading Six

 Poem 1 Counsel to Girls

 Robert Herrick

 Poem 2 The Tyger

 William Bloke

 Poem 3 Daffodils

 William Wordsworth

 Unit 7 English Fictions

Lesson Thirteen  The Signalman

 Charles Dickens

 Reading Skill Seven: Sentence Study (Part 1): Comprehension

 of a Sentence by Reading It in

 Thought Groups

Lesson Fourteen  The Horse Dealer's Daughter

 D. H. Lawrence

Lesson Fifteen Jane Eyre (Chapter Eight, Volume Two)

 Charlotte Bronte

 Supplementary Reading Seven

 Kew Gardens (Chapter 57)

 Virginia Woolf

 Unit 8 Fine Works by Chinese

Lesson Sixteen The Religion of Good Citizenship

 Gu Hongming

 Reading Skill Eight: Sentence Study (Part 2): Comprehension

 of a Sentence by Structural Analysis

Lesson Seventeen Farewell, Old Curiosity Shop

 Yiao Qian

 Appendix Keys for Reference