本教材旨在巩固和提高学生的英语阅读和写作的综合应用能力，同时培养学生的批判性思维和跨文化交际能力。教材精心挑选阅读素材，具有丰富的人文内涵，强调读写结合，以学生的英语实际使用为导向，内嵌四种语体的写作重点。
本教材根据主题分类，共包含八大主题：软技能、工作、文化、时尚、教育、性别差异、商务世界以及虚假新闻。每个主题设有导引阅读和两篇主题相关文章，循序渐进、逻辑清晰。主题文章是重点学习内容，每篇文章即为一个单元，每单元都设计了相关的阅读理解和词汇练习。

Theme 1 Soft Skills
Unit 1 I Wish Someone Had Told Me
Unit 2 How to Avoid Foolish Opinions?
Theme 2 Work
Unit 3 Why People Work
Unit 4 Why Did We Go Virtual?
Writing Focus: Summary Writing
Theme 3 Culture
Unit 5 Understanding Americans
Unit 6 Will an Elite College Degree Shelter Asian Americans from Discrimination?
Theme 4 It's All About the Styles
Unit 7 Clothes Make the Man
Unit 8 Style's Hidden Persuaders
Writing Focus: Expository Writing
Theme 5 Education
Unit 9 Think Twice
Unit 10 The World Is Goingto University
Theme 6 Gcnder PayGap
Unit 11 He Clicked, She Clicked
Unit 12 Pay Gap Persists Even as Women Take over Male-Dominated Fields
Writing Focus: Argumentative Writing
Theme 7 Business World
Unit 13 On a Wing and a Hotel Room
Unit 14 Big Blunders from Big Business
Theme 8 Fake News
Unit 15 The Science of Fake News
Unit 16 Fake News Spreads Faster than True News on Twitter-Thanks to People, Not Bots
Writing Focus: Curriculum Vitae Writing