本教材按照文学体裁分类编排，打破传统以国别、作家或年代为脉络的编排模式。教材中汇聚了短篇小说、长篇小说、诗歌、戏剧和散文等多种文学体裁的名家名作。正文部分以简洁易懂的英语讲解文学的基本要素，并通过典型的作品具体分析该要素在作品中的意义和作用，并将英语文学作品基本要素的讲解与例证分析紧密结合。

Unit 1 Introduction

Unit Letter

Section 1 Two Fables

Section 2 A Short Story

Section 3 Literature Is All Around Us

Unit 2 The Language of Literature

Unit Letter

Section 1 Comparing Things

Section 2 Some Other Figures of Speech and Literary Devices

Section 3 Word Choice

Section 4 Sentence Structure

Unit 3 Short Stories

Unit Letter

Section 1 Narrative and the Short Story

Section 2 Plot

Section 3 Setting

Section 4 Characterisation

Section 5 Point of View

Section 6 Time Structure, Dialogue, and Endings

Enrichment Reading

  1 Ernest Hemingway： Hills Like White Elephants

  2 Alan Maley： The Man Who Talked to Trees

  3 James Joyce： Eveline

  4 Robley Wilson ： Thief

  5 Sherwood Anderson： Paper Pills

Unit 4 Novels

Unit Letter

Section 1 Character Description

Section 2 Setting

Section 3 Dialogue

Section 4 Point of View

Section 5 Plot / Critical Incidents

Section 6 Openings and Closings

Enrichment Reading

  1 Graham Greene ： A Burnt-Out Case

  2 Jean Rhys ： Wide Sargasso Sea

  3 Thomas Hardy ： The Mayor of Casterbridge

  4 Oscar Wilde ： The Picture of Dorian Gray

  5 Ernest Hemingway： The Old Man and the Sea

  6 Charles Dickens ： Great Expectations

Unit 5 Non-Fiction

Unit Letter

Section 1 Speeches

Section 2 Essays

Enrichment Reading

  1 Martin Luther King ： I Have a Dream

  2 Jawaharlal Nehru ： Speech on the Granting of Indian

   Independence, August 14, 1947

  3 Sir Francis Bacon： Of Studies

Unit 6 Poetry

Unit Letter

Section 1 Introduction and the Types of Poetry(I)

Section 2 The Types of Poetry(2)

Section 3 The Forms of Poetry(I)

Section 4 The Forms of Poetry(2)

Section 5 The Devices of Poetry

Section 6 Bringing It All Together

Enrichment Reading

  1 Tennyson ： The Charge of The Light Brigade

  2 Oscar Wilde ： Ballad of Reading Gaol

  3 Emily Dickinson： Wild Nights ! Wild Nights !

  4 Anne Sexton： Words

  5 Jack Prelutsky： Be Glad Your Nose is on Your Face

  6 Benjamin Zephaniah ： The War Process

  7 Norman MacCaig ： Interruption to a Journey

  8 Edward Thomas ： The Owl

  9 Mary Yamall： Too Soon

  10 Vicki Feaver： Coat

  11 W.H.Davies： Leisure

  12 Abdul Ghafar Ibrahim ： The Wall

Unit 7 Drama

Unit Letter

Section 1 Comedy

Section 2 Tragedy

Section 3 Theatre of the Absurd

Section 4 Theatre of Social Commentary

Section 5 Historical Drama

Enrichment Reading

  1 Tom Stoppard ： In the Native State

  2 Harold Pinter. The Birthday Party

  3 Arnold Wesker. The Merchant

Unit 8 Revision

Unit Letter

Section 1 Revision of Units 1 and 2

Section 2 Revision of Unit 3

Section 3 Revision of Unit 4

Section 4 Revision of Unit 5

Section 5 Revision of Unit 6

Section 6 Revision of Unit 7

Appendix

Task Feedback

Sources of Extracts