本书编写的宗旨是通过阅读和练习，系统提升学生的词汇和语法知识，提高阅读能力和词义辨析能力。全书共有八个单元，每个单元有两课，每课由课文、练习两大部分组成，练习分词汇、语法、阅读、完型填空四部分，鉴于本书主要是用于准备笔译综合能力（3级）的考试，为了便于学员掌握有关内容和提高应试能力，练习的类型基本和考试类型相同。
本书的八个单元，由八大主题组成，分别为：体育与娱乐、旅游、政治、文化、教育和卫生、商务、工农业、科学。每个单元的两篇课文都是围绕相关主题展开，课后的阅读、完型填空等练习都和主题相关。为了便于学员掌握相关词汇，书中还列出了相关主题的基本词汇表。掌握这些基本词汇，有利于学员从事具体的翻译活动。
Lesson One
Text A great one goes out in style, his own style
Exercises
Ⅰ.Vocabulary
Ⅱ.Grammar: Nouns
Ⅲ.Cloze Test
Ⅳ.Reading Comprehension
Passage One: You've won nothing yet: Campo laughs off England World Cup hopes
Passage Two: Excerpts from Tessa Jowell's statement to the commons on the government's backing for London's Olympic bid
Passage Three: The football code
Passage Four: Sports and children
Lesson Two
Text Been up, been down.Now? Super.
Exercises
Ⅰ.Vocabulary
Ⅱ.Grammar: Adjectives
Ⅲ.Cloze Test
Ⅳ.Reading Comprehension
Passage One: Fishing in Yellowstone
Passage Two: French cuisine
Passage Three: A short history of Hollywood
Passage Four: Harry Potter and the meaning of life
Unit 2 Tourism
Unit 3 Politics
Unit 4 Culture
Unit 5 Education and Health
Unit 6 Business
Unit 7 Industry and Agriculture
Unit 8 Science
Reference keys to the exercises
