.This three-level academic, theme-based reading series focuses on cross-cultural content and promotes critical thinking skills.. ..Features. . Reading selections span fiction, non-fiction, news and magazine articles, interviews, maps, charts, web pages, quotations, and photo captions. . Reading passages reflect controlled word count and vocabulary and structure progression. . Skills are continually recycled to build student reading fluency, confidence, and mastery. . Units open with engaging photographs and questions to introduce the theme, provide academic focus, set chapter goals, and activate prior knowledge. . Before You Readactivities stimulate background knowledge, focus on vocabulary presentation and practice, and introduce important expressions. . As You Readsections focus students on the main idea, offer timed readings to build fluency, and provide pair work activities to promote topic discussion and information processing. . A specific section in each unit focuses on Internet reseach. . Structured speaking activities help students further explore each unit theme. . Each unit concludes with three writing activities. . . ...This is the intermediate level student book.. .