This textbook, prepared for American students who have already completed two semesters of Chinese, does not 'talk down' to the student, and its contemporary subject matter will provoke classroom discussion. Successfully encouraging speaking as well as reading practice, the work progresses from correspondence and dialogue to short essays. Lessons 1 through 10 focus on college life in the United States, 11 through 15 concern political and social issues in contemporary China, and 16 through 20 present biographies of three well-known figures in Chinese intellectual history and analyses of the Chinese Democracy Movement and the Tiananmen Square incident.Lessons 21 and 22 deal with Chinese translations of foreign place names and the Gulf War and are designed to accustom students to reading Chinese newspapers. The lessons in this text offer sufficient material for a two-semester course with five contact hours per week. For the text and vocabulary traditional and simplified characters are juxtaposed. The exercises of each lesson are included in the vocabulary volume. An index to the glossary is included. Audio and video materials are available for use with this text.