本书共15个单元。每个单元分课文A、B、C。课文选自当代英、美报纸和书刊、课文题材、体载多样内容具有知识性和趣味性、语言地道、形式新颖。

本书的阅读量较之传统的精读课本大，其目的在于创造更好的语言习得条件和发挥学生的潜力。课文和练习的形式与内容规定了教法。课文A适于在课堂上处理，突出阅读所涉及的个人独立工作特征。课文B强调学生课前的预习工作和有指导的独立工作，课上则益于采用启发式，讨论式教学，着重解决学生在预习中经过认真思考仍不能解决的问题。课文C可根据学生的水平灵活处理。

TEXT A

Unit 1 Invitations

Unit 2 Table of Contents and Index

Unit 3 Discovering the Main Ideas

Unit 4 Newspaper Headlines

Unit 5 Reading for Specific Information

Unit 6 Maps

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TEXT B

Unit 1 Alfred Nobel--A Man of Contrasts

Unit 2 Does Travel Broaden The Mind?

Unit 3 From Act One

Unit 4 Darkness at Noon

Unit 5 A Matter of Honor

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TEXT C

Unit 1 A Secret for Two

Unit 2 Martin Luther King--They Shot Him?

Unit 3 The Midnight Visitor

Unit 4 Exploring Antarctica.--The Frozen Continent

Unit 5 She Lived and 91 Others Died

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This does not, of course, happen only to Englishmen in France:all nationalities, in all foreign countries, can be found judging what they see, hear, taste and smell according to their own habits and customs.