加德纳所著的《大学学术英语读写教程(下学生用书)》以五个与人生和社会相关的专题(theme)为主线，每个专题由五篇课文组成，文章体裁、学科视角、作者身份和文化背景都各不相同，这样做的目的是使内容更加丰富多彩，使学生的视野更加开阔，使学科的交叉渗透更加通识化。五个专题分别是：1)跨文化交际；2)文化偏见与成见；3)性别角色；4)工作意义；5)教育意义。取材来源于大学教材、期刊论文、报刊文章、短篇小说、民间故事等；文章体裁包括论说文、记叙文、诗歌等；学科视角涉及社会学、语言学、心理学、性别学、国际关系学、跨文化交际学等。作者文化背景和种族背景各有不同，身份也多种多样。课文作者既有男也有女，性别相对平衡。每篇课文都从对作者及其作品的介绍入手，每个专题都提供与其相关的精彩引言语录。

Preface

CHAPTER ONE CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

 Reading Skill:Identifying Main Ideas and Supporting Details

 Brief Quotes

 Prereading Activities

 GARY ALTHEN,American Values and Assumptions

 A foreign student adviser analyzes major cultural patterns in the United States.

 Reading Journal

 Meaning and Technique

 Main Ideas

 Well-Written Paragraphs

 Supporting Details

 Drawing Inferences

 Vocabulary:Negative Prefixes

 Vocabulary:In Context

 Discussion and Debate

 Preconceptions and Stereotypes

 Writing Activities

 Objective Description vs.Value Judgment

 Prereading Activities

 LISA DAVIS,Where Do We Stand?

 A journalist describes cross-cultural differences in the use of personal space.

 Reading Journal

 Meaning and Technique

 Drawing Inferences

 Vocabulary:Idioms

 Vocabulary:In Context

 Discussion and Debate

 Writing Activities

 Compare-and-Contrast Signals

 Prereading Activities

 PREMCHAND,a Coward

 In this short story,an Indian writer focuses on the lives of two university students from different castes who fall in love.

 Reading Journal

 Vocabulary:Figures of Speech

 Additional Readings

 DEBORAH TANNEN,Sex,Sighs,and Conversation:Why Men and Women Can't Communicate

 A linguistics professor explores differences in the ways females and males use language.

 JOHN GODFREY SAXE,The Blind Men and the Elephant:A Hindu Fable

 Six blind men argue about what an elephant most resembles.

 The Adjustment Process in a New Culture

 A graph illustrates the five common stages of cultural adjustment.

 Making Connections

CHAPTER TWO STEREOTYPING AND DISCRIMINATION

CHAPTER THREE Gender roles

CHAPTER FOUR Work

CHAPTER FIVE Education

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E

Appendix F

Appendix G

Glossary

Index