作为研究生的英语教材，本书力求做到内容新颖，知识性思想性强，渗透对文化的学习、思考和探究，并能体现学术性。同时，语言首先是交际工具，非英语专业研究生掌握英语的目的是为了应用。因此本书还十分注重语言的实用性和选材的广泛性、时代性。

本书以课文阅读为核心，通过多样化的练习，对学生进行语言知识(如词汇、句型扩展及语法巩固)和读、说、写、译等语言技能的综合训练，提高学生的英语应用能力，从而达到学以致用的目的。

Unit One

 Text A Colin Powell:Straight to the Top

 Text B TheyCallHim a Miracle Worker

Unit TWO

 Text A ThatLean and Hungry Look

 Text B Neat People VSSloppyPeople

Unit Three

 Text A Selling Our Innocence Abroad

 Text B How I’ll Become an American

Unit Four

 Text A The Right to Fail

 Text B College Lectures：Is Anybody Listening?

Unit Five

 TextA A Granddaughter’s Fear

 Text B Stay Young

Unit Six

 Text A The Generation Lap

 Text B Christmas Unplugged

Unit Seven

 Text A Propaganda Techniques in Advertising

 Text B With These Words I Can Sell You Anything

Unit Eight

 Text A Nora Quealey

 Text B The Gendered Self

Unit Nine

 Text A HowtoDealwithaDifficultBoss

 Text B BadBossesandHowtoHandleThem

Unit Ten

 Text A Was America a Mistake?

 Text B Group Minds

Unit Eleven

 Text A Any More Like You at Home?

 Text B Only Daughter

Unit Twelve

 Text A The Real Generation Gap

 Text B Closing the Generation Gap