High School English Reading Course: Grade 10 Edition

Author: Qi Zhixiao and Li Desheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: This book is a newly developed reference textbook based on the English teaching syllabus for senior high school students. Its purpose is to strengthen the reading comprehension skills of senior high school students through exercises. The book is divided into three volumes and two main parts, featuring 184 representative short passages selected for their quality. These passages include familiar fables and fairy tales as well as classic works by renowned authors. The language is engaging and carries educational significance. Each unit is designed with corresponding exercises to provide targeted practice, accompanied by answers. With the continuous reform of college entrance examination content, English proficiency assessments have shifted from grammar-based evaluations to comprehensive assessments of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, with reading ability being a particular focus. The "General High School English Curriculum Standards" require students to accumulate over 300,000 words of extracurricular reading by the eighth grade level. To align with the "Syllabus" requirements and adapt to the "New Curriculum Standards," our school has been conducting systematic reading teaching experiments since 1996, offering regular reading classes and encouraging extracurricular reading. The results of the college entrance examinations have been impressive, attracting visits from other schools seeking our "secrets." The textbook used in our teaching was the precursor to High School English Reading Course. After years of continuous improvement, it was jointly published by Beijing Caihua Education Group and China Social Sciences Press. The vocabulary in Reading Text A of this course totals approximately 3,000 words, covering most of the vocabulary required by the seventh-grade level of the "General High School English Curriculum Standards." Reading Text B includes most of the target vocabulary for the eighth-grade level. The total reading volume of this course is about 300,000 words, meeting the basic requirements of the eighth-grade level of the "General High School English Curriculum Standards."
Course Structure
This course is divided into three volumes, with this being the second volume, containing 30 units and split into two parts for use in the second year of high school. The course is arranged in increasing difficulty, making it compatible with current high school English textbooks while also serving as a standalone resource. It can be used in classroom settings or for independent extracurricular reading. The back of the book includes explanations of difficult sentences and answers to exercises.
Content Introduction
Each unit in this volume is divided into Reading Text A and Reading Text B. Reading Text A is slightly easier than the corresponding textbook, with each passage accompanied by a vocabulary list and an Introduction designed to pose questions and spark students' interest in predicting the content of the passage. After each passage, there is a numerical statistics section that allows students to calculate their reading speed based on the time spent. Additionally, each passage includes several exercises to assess students' comprehension. Reading Text B passages are mostly close to the original text, with minor revisions to some obscure words or sentences that may be difficult for students to understand. The purpose of this section is to expose students to authentic English. The content covers British and American society, culture, life, and technology, aiming to broaden students' horizons and provide them with more information. Some passages are exquisite essays by renowned foreign authors, designed to connect English learning with other subjects, life, society, and the times, encouraging students to develop awareness of others, society, and the world. The back of the book includes answers and explanations to exercises, as well as annotations for difficult sentences.