本书是为高校英语专业高年级学生编写的综合英语教材，也适合水平相当的学习者使用。全书精选当代美文坛优秀散文，题材广泛，立意新颖，注重文化内涵和人文价值。

本书还结合当今国际社会公共话题或热门问题，提供丰富的时代信息和鲜活的语言规范，既训练学生的语言技能，又帮助他们开阔视野，激发心智，增长知识。

Unit 1

Text A Richard Rodriguez The Lonely,Good Company of Books

Text B Susan Jacoby When Bright Girls Decide That Math Is“a Waste of Time”

Unit 2

Text A E.D.Hirsch Jr.Why America's Universities Are Better Than Its Schools

Text B Benjamin R.Barber America Skpes School

Unit 3

Text A Francis Fukuyama Immigrants and Family Values

Text B Randall E.Majors America's Emerging Gay Culture

Unit 4

Text A Ruth Bendeict Are Families Passe?

Text B Amitai Etzioni Parenting as an Industry

Unit 5

Text A Judith Ortiz Cofer The Myth of the Laitn Woman:I Just Met a Girl Named Maria

Text B N.Scott Momaday The Way to Rainy Mountain

Unit 6

Text A Mararet Atwood Canadians:What Do They Wnat?

Text B Edward T.Hall The Arab World

Unit 7

Text A Arthur M.Schlesinger Jr.The Cult of Ethnicity

Text B Langston Hughes Salvation

Unit 8

Text A Andrew Hacker The Myths of Racial Division

Text B Martin Luther King Jr.I Have a Dream

Unit 9

Text A Henry Louis Mencken The Penalty of Death

Text B Jacques Barzun In Favor of Capital Punishment

Unit 10

Text A Perri Klass

Text B Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Unit 11

Text A Lance Morrow

Text B Ellen Goodman

Unit 12

Text A William J.Bennett

Text B Robert Coles

Unit 13

Text A Stephen L.Carter

Text B Gilbert Highet

Unit 14

Text A Marie Winn

Text B Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Unit 15

Text A Alice Walker

Text B Dave Barry

Unit 16

Text A Casey Miller & Kate Swift

Text B George Orwell

Unit 17

Text A Stephen Jay Gould

Text B J.B.S.Haldane

Unit 18

Text A Rachel Carson

Text B Joyce Carol Oates

Glossary