本书为中美专家合作编写，是一套缜密切入英美文化各个层面，培养英语运用能力的有机教程。其基本教学理念是：把学术焦点放在中西文化的表里差异上，引导学习者领会准确、纯正的英语，从而自然无碍地掌握语言技能。本书不仅适用于高校英语专业学生，也适用于入学时英语水平较高的大学非英语专业学生和有一定英语基础而准备出国深造的英语学习者。

Unit 1 The emergence of mankind

Unit 2 Interpreting oedipus

Unit 3 Greek tragedy

Unit 4 What is enlightenment?

Unit 5 enlightenment and the idea of progress

Unit 6 Modern views of nature

Unit 7 Freud and psychoanalysis

Unit 8 Modern aesthetics

Unit 9 Discourses of diaspora: Traveling nations and culures

Unit 10 The other kind of translation

Unit 11 foundational principles of society

Unit 12 Perspectives in economics

Unit 13 How free is the will of the individual