本套教材的特点：
1．题材广泛、内容丰富：教材分上、下两册，上册涵盖新生校园生活、礼仪、体育、英语学习、饮食与健康、应对危机、互联网、友谊和爱情、防止犯罪、环保、科学前沿、英语幽默、广告和畅销书等内容；下册涉及国际热点问题、团队精神、经济与wTO、旅游、杂志、文化冲击、伪科学、心理、婚姻、科幻等内容。这些内容都是与大一新生息息相关、并为他们所喜闻乐见的话题，容易调动学生的兴趣，利于课堂教学的互动。
2．创意新颖、有趣：教材内容都来自国外*新原版杂志、原版书籍和外文网站，并且注意选取视角新颖、独到的文章。每册教材后几个单元的文章取自受广大在校大学生欢迎的*新畅销书，而且每个单元后面都附有小幽默，这些小幽默也能很好地折射西方文化，使学生在获得语言素材的同时感受融入其中的文化因素。
3．注释翔实、全面：每篇课文后都配有相关注释，主要针对文化现象、人名、地名等内容，旨在扩大学生知识面，拓宽阅读视野。

Making the Transition to University Life
1 One of the major turning points in many peoples' lives is leaving school andcommencing university life. Studying at University not only means adjusting to a new way oflearning, but also a new way of living. Many students travel from the various provincesthroughout the country. There are many adjustments to make -- a lively and diverse newcampus environment to negotiate, new accommodation away from the familiar surroundingsof home and many new people to meet -- both fellow students and lecturers. Small things,like knowing where to catch a bus, buy fresh food or go swimming, will all be part of yournew experience.
2 To assist students with their transition to university life, universities usually havespecial orientation programs and sessions aimed at assisting students adjust to being atuniversity. In addition to the formal orientation programs offered, new students are stronglyurged to talk with students who have already been in the university for a while and have hada chance to "learn the ropes". 根据《高等学校英语专业英语教学大纲》的要求，英语阅读课的目的“在于培养学生的英语阅读理解能力和提高学生的阅读速度”，通过大量阅读训练“帮助学生扩大词汇量、吸收语言和文化背景知识”。本套英语阅读教材《21世纪英语阅读》就是按照《大纲》要求，由长期从事英语专业一、二年级英语阅读课的一线教师总结丰富的教学成果和经验编写而成，旨在为广大学生提高丰富、时新的阅读材料，提供广泛的语言和文化素材，拓宽阅读视野，扩大知识面，增强学生的英语语感，培养学生的阅读兴趣，提高学生的阅读能力。

Unit One Adapting to University Life
Text A University Life -- Do's and Don'ts
Text B Making the Transition to University Life

Unit Two What Makes a Good Language Learner？
Text A Learning Strategy
Text B Intercultural Awareness is Essential in Today's Global Environment

Unit Three Food and Nutrition
Text A Ten Nutrition Myths
Text B His & Her Eating

Unit Four How to Survive a Disaster
Text A Disasters
Text B How to Survive an Earthquake

Unit Five Sports
Text A The Olympic Games
Text B Importance of Sports

Unit Six Holidays and Festivals
Text A Chinese Traditional Festivals
Text B Major Holidays in the United States

Unit Seven Surfing the Internet
Text A The Internet in Black and White
Text B Children and Intemet Safety

Unit Eight Friendship and Love
Text A A Story about Ryan Schroer, His Friends, and His Incredible Torch Run
Text B Amazing True Love Story

Unit Nine Preventing Crimes
Text A Stop Credit Identity Theft from Happening to You --
Text B Remembering Tara

Unit Ten Environment
Text A The Hazards of Solar Energy
Text B Is Global Wanning a Threat？

Unit Eleven Scientific Forefront
Text A A Robot in the Kitchen
Text B The Gene Dream

Unit Twelve Educational Attitudes
Text A Chinese Education through the Eyes of a Foreigner ..
Text B Cheating - "But Everybody's Doing It" ~

Unit Thirteen Humor
Text A Confessions of a Humorist
Text B Humor

Unit Fourteen Advertising
Text A Ads on Postcards
Text B History of Advertising -- in Brief

Unit Fifteen Classic Novel
TextA A Room with a View (I)
TextB A Room with a View (II)

Unit Sixteen Best Seller
Text A Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (I)
Text B Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (II)

Unit Seventeen Language
Text A Is the English Language Changing？
Text B American Sign Language

Unit Eighteen Chicken Soup
Text A Working Christmas Day
Text B Big Red
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