王守仁、姚媛编著的《泛读教程（3修订版）》的特征体现在“泛”与“读”两个方面。就“泛”而言，教材选用语言素材题材广泛，内容呈百科知识性，涉及英语国家的社会、政治、经济、文化、文学、历史、宗教、体育、医药、环保、风土人情、科普知识等各个领域。同时，语言素材的文体呈多样性，既有文学作品，又有记叙、说明、议论、新闻、广告等语言风格不同的各类文章。就“读”而言，《泛读教程》提供全面系统的阅读训练，指导学生掌握细读、略读、寻读等方法，学会快速、准确地获取并处理信息，并通过各种练习，培养假设判断、分析归纳、推理检验等逻辑思维能力。学生学了这套教材，可以提高英语的阅读理解能力和阅读速度，增强英语语感，扩大词汇量，增加英语国家文化背景知识。

READING SKILL:Skimming

UNIT 1 Reading Strategies

 TEXT I:Why Read Faster

 TEXT II:Suggestions for Improving Reading Speed

UNIT 2 Education

 TEXT I:It's Never Too Late for Success

 TEXT II:The Education of Benjamln Franklin

UNIT 3 Body Language

 TEXT I:Signals Without Words

 TEXT II:. The Secret Language of Barrier Signals

UNIT 4 Animals

 TEXT I:Little Brother of the Wolf

 TEXT II:Bird Brains

UNIT 5 History

 TEXT I:Models for Understanding History

 TEXT II:History as Conspiracy

UNIT 6 Language

 TEXT I:Vocabulary Change

 TEXT II:Some Notes on Gender-Neutral Language

READING SKILL:Scanning

UNIT 7 Space

 TEXT I:Has the Bright Promise of the Space Program Faded?

 TEXT II:Probing the Universe

UNIT 8 Women

 TEXT I:Women in Education, Sports and Media

 TEXT II:Women in Science

U NIT 9 Cities

 TEXT I:The Unforgettable Hong Kong

 TEXT II:London

UNIT 10 Cross-Cultural Communication

 TEXT I:A Cross-Cultural Context:Americans, Germans, and English

 TEXT II:Customs

UNIT 11 Information Retrieval

 TEXT I:Library

 TEXT II:Evaluating Information Found on the Internet

UNIT 12 Environment

 TEXT I:Pollution Scenario

 TEXT II:Climate Change Scenario

READING SKILL:Drawing Inferences

UNIT 13 Medicine

 TEXT I:The Interaction of Body and Mind

 TEXT II:Will Your Drugs Work When You Really Need Them?

UNIT 14 Evolution

 TEXT I:Charles Darwin and the Evolutionary Theory

 TEXT II:Darwin and the Beagle

UNIT 15 Fransportation

 TEXT I:Frank Turner

 TEXT II:Can Vile Prevent a Grim Future for American Transportation?

UNIT 16 Time

 TEXT I:The Calendar

 TEXT II:A Brief History of Clock

UNIT 17 Television

 TEXT I:Daytime TV Talk Shows- What's Their Appeal?

 TEXT II:Television:The Cyclops That Eats Books

UNIT 18 Poetry

 TEXT:Introduction to Poetry