本教材是教育部推荐使用大学外语类教材，全国高等学校第二届优秀教材特等奖，国家教委高等学校第二届优秀教材一等奖。

《大学英语》系列教材的再修订，以《大学英语课程教学要求(试行)》为依据，历经三年调研，汲取全国数百所高校师生的建议和意见，旨在发扬我国大学英语教学的优良传统，推广成功经验，为新时期人才培养再作贡献。

本书为预备级第3版，在第一次修订的基础上进一步选用时代感较强、故事情节动人的文章取代内容相对陈旧的课文。丰富了练习类型(如增加了词汇练习和翻译练习)，以帮助学生在提高阅读理解能力的同时适当扩大词汇量。

1.The Loch Ness Monster

2.What Age7

3.A SARS Hero

4."Where's the Beef?"

5.What Happened to the Cabbages?

6.Why Are They So Hospitable?

7.A True Mystery Story

8.Robinson Crusoe

9.A Lost Ring

10.Help !

11.Sir Walter Raleigh

12.The Cobbler and the Banker

13.The Happiest Man

14.It's a Small World

15.Tornadoes

16.Four Beautiful Things about Hawaii

17.A Shot in the Dark

18.An Unusual Notice

19.Ants Are Smarter Than We Think

20.Christmas

21.What Time Is It?

22.How Tea Came to Asia

23.Wrong Number

24.A Clumsy World for Lefty

25.A Letter to a Friend

26.The Day the Volcano Blew Up

27.Advice for a Bright New Year

28.He Made Us a Team

29.Treasure from Flavius

30.The Unreality of TV

31.The Dreamer

32.The Finest Treasure

33.A Time for Courage

34.A Valuable Hour

35.Clocks Through Time

36.Pity for a Stranger

37.Does It Mean Giving Up Our Heritage?

38.Summer Is Festival Time in Britain

39.Be More Careful When Using Water

40.Stick Together or We'll Be All Alone

41.Miss Evans, of Boston, America

42.Let's Be Grateful for Small Things

43.Hunting Celebrities

44.Advantageous or Disadvantageous?

45.Do Those Things Make You Happy?

46.Should We Make Friends with Our Worst Nightmare?

47.Too Many Choices

48.Duty

Key to the Exercises

Vocabulary