Unit 1 Impressive Stories 1
Text 1 Galileo and the Pendulum 1
Text 2 Strange Minds 6
Text 3 The Man Who Made McDonald's Popular Around the World 11
Text 4 A Leaf from Heaven 16
Unit 2 Wonderful Nature 21
Text 1 Breathing Sea Water 21
Text 2 Snow 26
Text 3 The Mystery of Time 31
Text 4 Wonders of the World—Modern Structures 36
Unit 3 Great Inventions 41
Text 1 The Development of Cinema Film 41
Text 2 The Man Who Lighted the World 46
Text 3 Two Inventions That Have Helped Save Lives：Seatbelts and Kevlar 51
Text 4 The Strange Birth of Television 56
Unit 4 Useful Energies 61
Text 1 Using the Sun 61
Text 2 Plastics—Man's Most Useful Material 67
Text 3 Taking the Hot Air out of Wind Power 72
Text 4 Danger!Atomic Waste! 77
Unit 5 Health 82
Text 1 Want to Eat Less?Imagine Eating More 82
Text 2 How to Help Your Depressed Teen 88
Text 3 Walking for Exercise and Pleasure 94
Text 4 Smoking：It's Never Too Late to Stop 99
Unit 6 Culture 104
Text 1 Meet the Downsized Generation：Millennials Who Are Rewriting the Rules for Success 104
Text 2 What Unites These States? 110
Text 3 Confucianism in China 116
Text 4 Ten Benefits of Reading：Why You Should Read Every Day 120
Text 1 Three Myths on the World's Poor 126
Text 2 Building a Country by Switching on the Lights 132
Text 3 Feeding the Planet Without Destroying It 137
Text 4 Turning up the Volume on Climate Change Isn't Changing Behaviour 142
Unit 8 Future world 147
Text 1 The Future of Personal Computing：Cloud-Connected Screens Everywhere 147
Text 2 Why We Have to Turn Electronic Devices Off on Planes 152
Text 3 How Your Language Affects Your Wealth and Health? 158
Text 4 Can Schools Survive in the Age of the Web? 163
Keys to Exercises 168
参考文献 172