本教材严格根据高等学校英语专业教学大纲的要求进行编写。
本教材选材广泛、内容新颖:既有反映英美文化和风土人情的轻松读物,也有涉及学校教育、社会生活、语言发展、心理和智商等严肃题材的文章,还有不少课文反映了当今世界人们普遍关心的问题,如环境保护、全球化经济、跨文化交际、企业管理、网络通信等。本书语言地道规范,绝大多数课文选自英美国家近年出版的书刊报纸,呈现给读者的是原汁原味的现代英语,对学生语言基本功的培养大有裨益。
本教材共分二十个单元,每一单元由主题相似的Text A和Text B组成,并配有生词脚注,方便学生阅读;注释包括作者简介及相关文化背景知识。书后附有部分练习的参考答案。
本教材可供高等院校英语专业二年级学生作为基础阶段的阅读教材使用,也可供具有中等英语水平的广大英语爱好者自学时使用。
Unit 1
Text A My Life/001
Text B The New Job/005
Unit 2
Text A My Oedipus Complex ( I )/011
Text B My Oedipus Complex ( II )/018
Unit 3
Text A Good Taste in Knowledge/025
Text B Inquiry Can Take the Content out of Education/030
Unit 4
Text A The Merits of Meritocracy/034
Text B The Story of the A-Bomb Kid/039
Unit 5
Text A Space Speaks/046
Text B Don't Misread My Signals/051
Unit 6
Text A Ambushed in the Dentist's Chair as Time Goes By/055
Text B Tea/059
Unit 7
Text A The Aims of Education/065
Text B Liberal Arts for the 21st Century/069
Unit 8
Text A When You Must Make a Lasting Impression/073
Text B What I’ve Learned from Men/077
Unit 9
Text A Japanese and American Workers: Two Casts of Mind/084
Text B The Japanese Approach to Business/091
Unit 10
Text A Miss Amelia and Marvin Macy/096
Text B Rural Love Story/100
Unit 1 1
Text A For the Birds/104
Text B Ten Major Threads to the Environment/110
Unit 12
Text A How to Survive a Disaster ( I )/117
Text B How to Survive a Disaster ( II )/122
Unit 13
Text A Bad Managers/129
Text B Loyalty Has to Be Earned/133
Unit 14
Text A The Same Language? /138
Text B The Role of English in the 21st Century/142
Unit 15
Text A The Curse of Vanishing Wealth/147
Text B Marketing to Innocents/153
Unit 16
Text A Looking to Eat Nokia's Lunch/158
Text B House of Cards/164
Unit 17
Text A Is America Losing at Globalization? /168
Text B Common Wealth/173
Unit 18
Text A How Intelligent Is Intelligence Testing? ( T )/181
Text B How Intelligent Is Intelligence Testing? ( II )/188
Unit 19
Text A On PlagiarJsm/192
Text B The New Plagiarism:Seven Antidotes to Prevent Highway
Robbery in an Electronic Age/197
Unit 20
Text A Who Was More Important: Lincoln or Darwin? ( I )/203
Text B Who Was More Important: Lincoln or Darwin? ( II )/209
Answer Keys/217