翻开这本《当代英语散文：阅读与欣赏》，我们从中感受到的不仅仅是英语散文内容的清新、语言的魅力和审美的梯度，更有作家们对当代社会生活百科全书式的描摹及其文化心态次第更新的历程。该书展示的是一面折射内心情感、世事光影的多棱镜。为了方便教学，编者还特意为每一篇选文提供作家概况、作品赏析、词汇注释、文化点解析、问题探讨以及参考网页，旨在引导学生对选文进行阅读与欣赏。

Unit 1

 Families

 What Is Happiness?

Unit 2

 Femininity

 The Appeal of the Androgynous Man

Unit 3

 Learning to Listen

 The Fine Art of Complaining

Unit 6

 The Chase

 Bombs Bursting in Air

Unit 5

 In Defense of Talk Shows

 Why We Crave Horror Movies

Unit 6

 I Surf, Therefore I Am

 A Design for Living on the Internet

Unit 7

 Less Is More: A Call for Shorter Work Hours

 What Is the Point of Working?

 The Portraits of My Parents

 A Chinaman's Chance: Reflections on the American Dream

Unit 9

 Of Shopping

 Kill 'Era! Crush 'Era! Eat 'Era Raw!

Unit 10

 But What Do You Mean?

 Pornoviolence

Unit 11

 That Lean and Hungry Look

 The Ugly Truth About Beauty

Unit 12

 On Self-Respect

 The Medusa and the Snail

Unit 13

 The Word Police

 Sexism and Language

Unit 14

 The Broken Chain

 Ann Wrestling with My Father

Unit 15

 What the Great Books Do

 The Limits of the Great Books

Unit 16

 Love Sick

 Love Story

Unit 17

 Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir

 Safe-Sex Lies

Unit 18

 The "Values" Wasteland

 Student Loans

Unit 19

 A Fable for Tomorrow

 Is Technology Making Us Intimate Strangers?

Unit 20

 Of Headless Mice... and Men

 Study Cloning, Don't Ban It

Appendix: Reading Critically

References