束定芳主编的《长篇阅读(4第2版新世纪大学英语系列教材)》包括8个不同主题的单元，每单元含3篇阅读材料。所有阅读材料的练习答案均以附录形式放在书后。
阅读材料主要选自国内外主流媒体的报刊时文，所涉及话题尽量对应《综合教程》所列出的32个主题，包括教育、生活、体育、艺术、经济、科技等。

Unit 1 Arts
Passage A The Voice of God
Passage B Canadian Arts and Crafts
Passage C Chinese Painting
Unit 2 Sleep and Dreams
Passage A Sleep Less, Live Longer
Passage B What Do Animals Dream About?
Passage C Enough Sleep for Teens
Unit 3 Genetic Engineering
Passage A Rice Genome Sequence Means More Food for the Future
Passage B Genetically Modified Foods: Toxins and Reproductive Failures
Passage C Medicine and Genetic Research
Unit 4 Speeches
Passage A A Speech of Tribute
Passage B Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
Passage C We Are What We Choose
Unit 5 Career
Passage A How to Find a Job You'll Love
Passage B Blogs Review: The Youth Unemployment Crisis
Passage C The Path to Becoming a CEO
Unit 6 Literature
Passage A The Immigration Experience in Asian American Literature
Passage B Alice Munro Wins Literature Nobel Prize
Passage C Why Literature
Unit 7 The Internet and Computers
Passage A Vulnerability of Information in the Digital Age
Passage B Illiteracy in the Information Age
Passage C The Top 10 IT Disasters of All Time
Unit 8 Politics
Passage A Political Scandals in the U.S.A.
Passage B Commons War Debates of the Past
Passage C Why Are American Politics a Mess?
Key to the Exercises
Records of Your Reading Rate & Comprehension Rate