本书是《现代大学英语》系列教材中与精读教材配合使用的整套四册阅读的第二册，入选的每篇文章都经过了精心筛选。其中有多篇文章的作者是世界知名的作家，书中为每一篇文章的难点部分作了详细的注释，尤其是对一些阅读欣赏的微妙之处加以点睛阐释，相信读者读后会有不同一般的感受。

1.I'll Never Understand My Wife(by Steven James)

2.A New Millennium(by J.M.DeGross)

3.Assumed Identities(by Timothy David)

4.The Ambitious Violet(by Kahlil Gibran)

5.Attitude Is Everything(by Brian Cavanaugh)

6.A Broom of One's Own(by Jean Railla)

7.Behind the Words(by Harold Longman)

8.The Chaser(by John Collier)

9.My Friend, Albert Einstein(by Banesh Hoffmann)

10.Breakthroughs(by Richard Heinberg)

11.Chez Moi(by Isabel Huggan)

12.Technology in Reverse(by Robert J.Samuelson)

13.The First Day(by George and Helen Papashvily)

14.A Computer with a Human Brain

15.A Nightly Visitor(by Martha Marino)

16.Count on Crows(by Ian Frazier)

17.Just So Much and No More...(by Donella Meadows)

18.The Thing You Want(by Jack TrammeU)

19.A Clean, Well-Lighted Place(by Ernest Hemingway)

20.In the Middle of the Night(by Philippa Pearce)

21.Terrafied(by Arthur Tofte)

22.Focusing on Friends(by Steve Tesich)

23.Night of the Hunt Ball(by James Herriot)

24.The Face Is Familiar, But—(by Max Shnhnan)

25.The Great Idea of Mr.Budd(by Dorothy L.Sayers)

26.The Other Side of Freedom(by Vicki Robin)

27.Just Lather, That's All(by Hernando Tellez)

28.Doctor Mum(by Hugh Lunn)

29.The Companionship of a Poem(by Billy Collins)

30.Uncle Harold(by Russel Baker)

31.Trurrs Machine(by Stanislaw Lem)

32.Big Shot(by Margaret Weymouth Jackson)

33.Tricki and His Mistress—from All Creatures Great and Small(by James Herriot)

34.Lamb to the Slaughter(by Roald Dalai)

35.Mr.Know-All(by William S.Maugham)

36.Halfway to Hell(by John Collier)

37.The Lottery Ticket(by Anton Chekhov)

38.The Man Called Dead(by Pearl S.Buck)

39.The Jewels(by Guy De Maupassant)

40.The Income-Tax Man(by Mark Twain)

41.Forty Years On(by Norah Lofts)

42.Four Generations(by Joyce Maynard)

43.Shaving(by Leslie Norris)

44.University Days(by James Thurber)

45.The Thief(by Junichiro Tanizaki)

46.My Oedipus Complex(by Frank O'Connor)

47.Shot Actress—Full Story(by H.E.Bates)

48.The Story of an Hour(by Kate Chopin)

49.The Upper Berth(by F.Marion Crawford)

50.The Monkey's Paw(by W.W.Jacobs)

51.The Doll's House(by Katherine Mansfield)