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人其中的文化因素。
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。

Mountain Climbing
1 Mountain climbing, or ascending mountains, is popular worldwide, wherever hillsrise high enough to provide challenge. The activity's rewards include the physical exertion itrequires, the satisfaction of overcoming difficulties by working with others, the thrill ofreaching a summit, and the unobstructed view from a mountaintop. Exploration and researchare other reasons that people climb mountains.
2 Ascents can be either nontechnical (a hike up a path or a scramble over rocks, notrequiring the safety of a rope), or technical ( a climb up more difficult terrain that requiresthe use of rope and other specialized equipment). This article focuses on technical climbs,which involve all the elements of simple hikes but also require advanced knowledge andequipment. Making technical climbs is also known as mountaineering.
3 Since ancient times, people have viewed mountain peaks as towering objects ofmyth, spiritual inspiration, and romantic beauty. Early peoples made ascents only to huntgame, to rescue lost or strayed animals, or to gain a military advantage over an enemy.Eventually, the unknown and inaccessible ceased to be something to be feared and avoided,and the conquest of the major mountain peaks and ranges of the world began. Mountaineeringas a sport was born on August 8, 1786, with the first ascent of Mont Blanc (4,810 lit/15,782 ft), one of Europe's tallest peaks. Since that ascent, mountain climbing has evolvedinto three related sports: alpine climbing, ice climbing, and rock climbing. These sportsrequire the same fundamental techniques. 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《2l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 Presidents at War
Text A To Make War, Presidents Lie
Text B Presidents at War

Unit Two Sleeping and Dreaming
Text A Why We Sleep？
Text B What Your Dreams Really Mean？

Unit Three Money
Text A Get Your Money's Worth
Text B Saving Money

Unit Four Traveling and Mountaineering
Text A A Glimpse of Beijing
Text B Mountain Climbing

Unit Five Journalism
Text A A Historical Survey of Journalism
Text B BBC World Service

Unit Six Culture Shock
Text A What is Culture Shock
Text B Resolving Conflict in a Multicultural Environment

Unit Seven Superstition
Text A What Is Superstition？
Text B After All We Know But Little

Unit Eight Hollywood
Text A The Hollywood Sign
Text B Hollywood Censored: The Production Code

Unit Nine Psychology
Text A Cross-Cultural Psychology in the 21st Century
Text B Consumer Psychology

Unit Ten Mysteries
Text A Black Holes
Text B Crop Circle Phenomenon

Unit Eleven Creativity
Text A Alex F. Osborne : Father of the Brainstorm
Text B Who Says You Can't Wear Red Shoes？

Unit Twelve Nature and Nurture
Text A What Makes Us Do It？
Text B How Are Your Genes？

Unit Thirteen Health
Text A Learning from China
Text B Red Meat Is Strongly Linked To Cancer

Unit Fourteen Challenge
Text A Blind to Failure
Text B On Top of the World

Unit Fifteen My Life
Text A Chapter Seventeen
Text B Chapter Twenty-Eight

Unit Sixteen Science and Fiction
Text A Science and Fiction
Text B The "Birth" of a Monster
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