本书涉及地质学、地球物理、水文学、岩土力学、工程地质学等方面的专业知识，旨在培养地质工程专业研究生的英文文献阅读能力，并为其进一步提高专业论文的英文写作能力打下坚实的基础。
全书分为5个单元，每个单元包括5篇专业英文文献，全部取材于已发表的高质量期刊论文或专业教材，用语规范，针对性强。同时，为了便于读者使用，本书在英文原文之后均附上了词汇表和译文。

Unit 1 Geology
Text 1 A Unified Theory of the Earth
Text 2 Causes of Earthquakes and Lithospheríc Plates Movement
Text 3 The Role of Bedding in the Formation of Fault-Fold Structure
Text 4 Geological Map
Text 5 Geological Development of an Area
Unit 2 Geophysics
Text 6 How Mountains Get Made
Text 7 Sceing Is Believing
Text 8 Taking Earth's Temperature
Text 9 Magnetostatics
Text 10 Geophysical Investigation Methods
Unit 3 Hydrology
Text 11 A Decade of Sea Level Rise Slowed by Climate-Driven Hydrology
Text 12 Ancient Geodynamics and Global-Scale Hydrology on Mars
Text 13 Human-Induced Changes in the Hydrology of the Western United States
Text 14 Hydrologícal Cycle
Text 15 Land Subsidence Due to Groundwater Drawdown in Shanghai
Unit 4 Soft and Rock Mechanics
Text 16 Acute Sensitivity of Landslide Rates to Initial Soil Porosity
Text 17 Simple Scaling of Catastrophic Landslide Dynamics
Text 18 E1ements of Soil Physics
Text 19 World Stress Map Project
Text 20 Can Buildings Be Made Earthquake-safe
Unit 5 Engineering Geology
Text 21 Assessing Landslide Hazards
Text 22 Engineering Geological Assessment of the Obruk Dam Site
Text 23 Engineering Geology—A Fifty Year Perspective
Text 24 The Collapse of the Sella Zerbino Gravity Dam
Text 25 Stability Analysis of Llerin Rockfill Dam
References