只要你想学好英语，让英语应用变成一种得心应手的习惯，那么不管你现在多少岁，打开这本书都不晚。 　　本书精选北美中小学课本中的标准课文，涵盖的学科广泛，包括数学、语文、科学、艺术、生物、化学、体育等等。藉此你可以从中体验到美式教育的精髓。我们试图让你真正“浸入”到纯正的英语环境中，实现有意识记与无意识记的完美结合，充分调动自己无意识记忆的潜在能力，让英语学习不再是一件辛苦的事情。

李清如，畅销书作者，编译多部英文读物。

　　看不懂小学英语课本？是的。学了十多年英语的你，可能根本就不知道加减乘除该怎样表达，不知道标点符号该怎么表示，美国人日常使用的东西你可能根本就没有学到过。因此，即便你已经学了十多年英语，依然需要补上这一课。 　　如果你在外企工作，能力一流，英语也很棒，可是为什么总是遭遇到职场“天花板”？在世界各地，都有许多跨国的CEO。印度有很多，台湾、香港有一些，但中国大陆极少。为什么？真的是因为能力有限吗？不，是因为你和外企的文化不能亲近。 　　西方人经常谈论的古典音乐、红酒、棒球、桥牌、国际象棋、宗教，你能自如地和他们用英语交谈吗？看似简单的语言背后，却是文化的积淀。如果你不能熟悉某个民族沉淀在语言中的文化心理，那么将会永远和他们有隔膜。在外企中，也就永远不能融入他们，自然无法成为一名杰出的领导者。 　　美国人天生就思维发散吗？要知道，一个民族的思维方式，和他们的教育，也就是孩子从小所受到的引导有关。比如，我们常常认为美国的数学教育很落后，计算能力和解题能力不如中国的孩子。可是，你知道吗？美国教材对数学的理解相当全面。从一年级开始，就引入了分类、集合、序列、比较大小、数轴等各种概念，比我们小时候用过的数学教材要全面得多！是早点学会加减乘除重要，还是培养活跃的思维方式重要？你自己会得出结论。

　　Why do we need money to buy things? What makes the economy do well or poorly? What makes prices go up and down? These are all questions that can be answered by taking a basic look at how money and the economy work. 　　If you have ever seen an antique penny from the early 1800s, also called a large cent, you know that money looked very different then compared to how it looks today. Paper money was first printed in the United States in 1862. Different types of coins were used long before that. Many Native Americans has their own system of money that used shells instead of bills and coins. Some historians think that metal objects, similar to coins, were first used as money in China some 3,000 years ago. Before that, people traded anything from cows to chickens to grain to receive goods and services the same way that money is used today. Dollar bills are certainly much more convenient. Could you imagine your mother to carry chickens in her purse to pay for groceries at the supermarket? Money essentially represents something of value that we own, which we then trade for things that we need or want. The concept of using money or some other item of value to buy things is almost as old as human existence itself. 　　Today, the creation and distribution of money in the United States is overseen by a part of the government called the Federal Reserve Bank. The Fed, as it is often called for short, is not like a normal bank where people go to deposit and withdraw money. Instead, you can think of it as a central bank, or the government’s bank where the United States can deposit and withdraw money. Some of the responsibilities of the Fed include printing and putting new money into circulation, taking old money out of circulation and setting national interest rates. Before the Fed was created in 1913, no standard form of currency existed in the U.S. In fact, by 1913 there were as many as 30,000 different forms of currency being used in the United States! Now we have just one standardized form of currency. The Bureau of Printing and Engraving is the government agency that is in charge of the actual creation of money. The print about 37 million paper notes every day! The majority of these are in the form of one-dollar bills, which is the most common form of paper currency. The majority of these new bills are sent to banks around the country so that we always have a fresh supply of crisp, mew bills in circulation. But this means that they also have to take this many old bills out of circulation to be destroyed. So it is actually the job of some people to burn old money! 　　There are many factors that can influence the economy, such as inflation, unemployment, and supply and demand. Inflation is when the cost of goods and services rises. As a result, you can’t buy much with the same amount of money as you could before, so buying power drops when inflation goes up. Unemployment also has an effort on the economy. If there are a lot of people who can’t find works, they can’t spend money. If people don’t spend money, businesses can’t sell their products and the economy slows down. This is what supply and demand means. For the economy to run smoothly, not only do businesses have to supply a lot of their products, but people need to want to buy them, which is called demand. Changes in supply and demand affect inflation, and this is what causes prices to go up and down. There are many more factors that can impact the economy and it is the job of the Fed to try to balance all of these in just the right way so that the economy does well. As you can see, this is a very hard job indeed!

Part 1　Social Life 社会生活 01 The Articles of Confederation 邦联条例 02 The Three Branches of Government 政府的三个部门 03 President 历史上伟大的总统 04 Pollution 我们身边的环境污染 05 Communication in Modern Times 近代通讯方式 06 What You Need to Know About Taking Tests 学生考试须知 07 If Someone Lying Unconscious 如果看到有人晕倒 08 Form Good Health Habits 养成好的健康习惯 09 Electricity 和电流安全相处 10 Choose Snacks 教你怎么吃零食 11 Eyes Can Speak 眼睛会说话 12 How to Love the Winter 如何享受冬季 13 When a Person Is Grown Up 何时才算长大