该教材的主体内容为四大文学类别：小说(长篇小说和短篇小说)、诗歌、戏剧和文化(神话)读本。各部分的前面都有文学类别简介，课文部分包括作家作品介绍、文本和练习及思考题等；教材最后附有相关的重要文学词汇表。其目的在于向学生们介绍一些最基本的英语文学创作与鉴赏知识，培养他们的语言美感，增强他们对人生的理解，提高他们的人文意识和修养，为今后的英美文学史和文学专业课程的学习打下基础。

Section Ⅰ Fiction·Novel

 A-1：The Adventures of Tom Sanyer，Mark Twain

The Authors Life and Career

Selected Reading：The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(Chapter 2)

 A-2：Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.Lewis Carroll

The Auther’s Life and Career

Selected Rdading：Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland，(Chapter 7)

 A-3：Pride and Prejudice，Jane Austen

The Auther’s Life and Career

Selected Reading：Pride and Rrejudice(Vol.1——Chapters 1&22)

 B-1：Invisible Man，Ralph EUison

The Author’s Life and Career

Selected Reading：Invisible Man(Chapter 1)

 B-2：Wuthering Heights.Emily BrontE

The Author’s Life and Career

Selected Reading：Wuthering Heights(Chapter 1)

 B-3：Great Gatsby，F.Scott Fitzgerald

The Author’s Life and Career

Selected Reading：The Great Gatsby(Chapter 3)

Section Ⅱ Fiction·Short Story

 A-1：The Gift of the Magi，O.Henry

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：The Gift of the Magi

 A-2：Indian Camp，Ernest Hemingway

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：The Indian Camp

 A-3：The Story of an Hour，Kate Chopin

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：The Story of an Hour

 B-1：The Ramsom ofRed Chief，O.Henry

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：The Ransom of Red Chief

 B-2：The Egg，Sherwood Anderson

The AuthoFs Lifle and Career

Text Reading：The Egg

 B-3：The Fly，Katherine Mansfield

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：The Fly

Section Ⅲ Poetry

 A-1：Sonnet 73，William Shakespeare

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Sonnet 73

 A-2：A Red，Red Rose，Robert Bums

The Auther’s Life and Career

Text Reading：A Red，Red Rose

 A-3：The Solitary Reaper，William Wordsworth

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：The Solitary Reaper

 A-4：Break，Break，Break，Alfred Tennyson

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Break，Break，Break

 A-5：O Captain，My Captain，Walt Whitman

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：O Captain，My Captain！

 A-6：Hope Is the Thing with Feathers，Emily Dickinson

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：“Hope”is the thing with feathers

 A-7：The Lake lsle of Innisfree，William Butler Yeats

The Author’s Lire and Career

Text Reading：The Lake Isle of Innisfree

 A-8：Birches，Robert Lee Frost

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Birches

 A-9：The Red Wheelbarrow，Between Walls，William Carlos Williams

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：The Red Wheelbarrow

Text Reading：Between Walls

 A-10：Mirror，Sylvia Plath

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Mirror

 A-11：Hawk Roosting，Ted Hughes

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Hawk Roosting

 A-12：Novella，Adrienne Rich

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Novella

 B-1：Easter Wings，George Herbert

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Easter Wings

 B-2：lnfant Joy，Infant Sorrow，William Blake

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Infant Joy

Text Reading：Infant Sorrow

 B-3：On the Grasshopper and the Cricket，John Keats The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：On the Grasshopper and the Cricket

 B-4：Annabel Lee.Edgar Allan Poe

The Author’s Ljfe and Career

Text Reading：Annabel Lee

 B-5：Because I Could Not Stop for Death，Emily Dickinson

Text Reading：Because I Could Not Stop for Death

 B-6：When Your Are OId.William Bufer Yeats

Text Reading：When You Are Old

 B-7：Helen，Hilda Doolitfle

The AUthor’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Helen

 B-8：The Road Not Taken，Robert Frost

Text Reading：The Road Not Taken

 B-9：Ars Poetica.Archibald Macleish

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：Ars Poetica

 B-10：A Blessing.James Wright

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：A Blessing

 B-11：The Thought-Fox，Ted Hughes

Text Reading：The Thought-Fox

 B-12：There Is a Girl Inside，Lucille Clifton

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：There Is a Girl Inside

 B-13：I Go Back to May 1937，Sharon Olds

The Author’s Life and Career

Text Reading：I Go Back to May 1937

Section Ⅳ Plays

 Text-1：Waitingfor Godot(Act 1)，Samuel Beckett

The Author’s Life and Career

Selected Reading：Waitingfor Godot

 Text-2：Flight into Danger(Act 1)，Arthur Hailey

The Author’s Life and Career

Selected Reading：Flight into Danger

Section Ⅴ Myths and Biblical Stories

 Text-1：The Old Testament

Selected Reading：Genesis

 Text-2：Greeo.Roman Myth

Selected Reading：Ⅰ.Psyche and Eros

         Ⅱ.Orpheus

Literary Terms

Refefences