本教材定位为应用型本科院校非英语专业学生使用的教材，作为大学英语拓展类课程教材，目的在于使学生直接了解专业前沿知识和技术发展现状，培养学生以英语为工具获取相关专业所需信息的能力，提高学生阅读相关专业科技专刊和科技文选的能力，为高年级阶段阅读专业的英语文献打下良好的基础。

Unit 1 Artificial Intelligence
Text A Artifi cial Intelligence: Friendly or Frightening?
Text B AI Summit Aims to Help World’s Poorest
Text C Th e Weapoof Doomsday: AI
Unit 2 Planet Protection
Text A How Would Just 2 Degrees of Warming Change the Planet?
Text B Th e Risk of ExtinctioIs Highest for Earth’s Largest and Smallest Animals
Text C 7 High-tech Tools to Combat Poaching
Unit 3 Virtual Reality
Text A How Virtual Reality Works
Text B Virtual Reality Helps Distract Kids from Painful Medical Procedures
Text C How Project Morpheus Works
Unit 4 Unmanned Technologies
Text A Drone Trends to Watch in 2018: Big Data, Flying Tas and Home Security
Text B Driver-less Cars and How They Would Change Motoring
Text C How Amazon Go Will Revolutionize Retail Convenience
Unit 5 New Energy and Climate
Text A Artifi cial Photosynthesis—the Potentially Cleanest Technology
Text B Turn CO2 into Valuable Products
Text C The Disruptive Power of the Renewables
Unit 6 Social Networking
Text A Why WhatsApp Only Needs 50 Engineers for Its 900M Users
Text B Social Media and the Big Data Explosio
Text C Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Networking
Unit 7 Space Exploratio
Text A Leaders Satellites Space: the Next Startup Frontier
Text B Searching for Aliens: the Wow Factor
Text C China’s Commercial Aerospace Dream Edges Closer to Reality
Unit 8 Medical Science
Text A FDA Approval Brings First Gene Therapy to the United States
Text B After Surgery ithe Womb, a Baby Is Kicking up Hope
Text C Current Alzheimer’s Treatments