Read 1 -- (21st Century College English) Companion Text

Author: Zhu Jinhua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-19
Features: This series of teaching materials is a supplementary set to the National Key Textbook for General Higher Education, "College English in the 21st Century." It includes three components: "Reading," "Speaking," and "Vocabulary," each divided into three volumes, designed for basic English classroom teaching and practice for non-English majors in universities.
The "Reading" component aims to improve students' reading skills. The first and second volumes each contain ten units. Each unit introduces a specific reading skill and includes targeted exercises. Additionally, each unit provides three quick-reading passages to help students master reading skills and improve their reading speed through repeated practice. The third volume focuses on introducing literary masterpieces, analyzing texts of various genres and styles to enhance students' appreciation of literary works.
The "Speaking" component uses images, charts, and other forms to revolve around the themes of the textbook. Through activities such as reading aloud, presentations, storytelling, group discussions, debates, and situational dialogues, it deepens students' understanding of the text and helps them improve their oral English proficiency, achieving the teaching objective of "College English Curriculum Requirements" to "cultivate students' comprehensive English application skills, especially listening and speaking abilities."
The "Vocabulary" component primarily focuses on training. Combining vocabulary learned in each unit, it employs various in-class and out-of-class exercises to help students master basic linguistic knowledge such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots, enrich their vocabulary, and strengthen their language foundation, enabling them to meet and exceed the general vocabulary requirements specified in the "College English Curriculum Requirements."
The "Reading," "Speaking," and "Vocabulary" components are designed around the main textbook, "College English in the 21st Century," and are tailored for classroom teaching. With a wide range of topics, rich content, standardized language, clever structure, and diverse exercises, they not only free teachers from the "monologue" and teacher-centered classroom teaching but also encourage students to become more proactive learners, transforming passive learning into active learning.
This series of teaching materials was written by faculty from the School of Foreign Languages at Shanghai University. John Nix, a native American expert, revised and supplemented parts of the "Speaking" and "Reading" components. The illustrations in the "Speaking" textbook were created by students from the School of Fine Arts at Shanghai University, including Chen Qianmo, Sun Jian, Huang Shijia, Zhang Rui, Su Yeting, Wang Yiming, and Gu Hailin. We sincerely thank them for their hard work.