本册共14个单元，每单元包括TEXT A与TEXT B两篇课文。内容涉及教育、语言、政治、文学等领域。主题包括语言学习、跨文化交际、民族性格、女性意识、社会变迁、人类天性等。体裁包括小说、散文、政论文、传记、演说辞、寓言、神话、科幻故事等。课文的选材力求体现经典性与时代性相结合、知识性与趣味性相结合的原则，同时关注学生的需要、兴趣与语言难易程度。

Unit 1 The Power of Rhetoric
Text A We Force the Spring
Text B Ask Not What Your Country Can Do for You
Unit 2 Learning and Teaching
Text A Miss Sullivan
Text B On Being a Scientific Booby
Unit 3 Cross-cultural Communication
Text A Culture Shock
Text B A Canadian Firm’s Negotiation in China
Unit 4 Impact of Change
Text A The Open Road
Text B On Going Home
Unit 5 Humor and Irony
Text A The Night the Ghost Got In
Text B The Verger
Unit 6 The Choice of Words
Text A Politics and the English Language
Text B The Choice of Words
Unit 7 Nature and Civilization
Text A Who Killed King Kong
Text B Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit
Unit 8 Women’s Consciousness
Text A A Room of One’s Own
Text B Feminist Consciousness after the Women’s Movement
Unit 9 National Character
Text A Paradox and Dream
Text B The European’s America (23 October 1952)
Unit 10 The Short Story
Text A Miss Brill
Text B The Gift of the Magi
Unit 11 Education
Text A The School and Social Progress
Text B Education by Poetry
Unit 12 Treasury of Fantasy
Text A Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog
Text B Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Unit 13 Human Folly
Text A The Folly of Discontent with One’s Own Lot
Text B The Picture of Dorian Gray
Unit 14 Human Quest
Text A Yali’s Question
Text B The Wanderer from Thus Spoke Zarathustra
生词总表 Vocabulary