《21世纪大学英语》在选材上注重内容的趣味性、信息性、可思性和前瞻性，语言的规范性、致用性和文体的多样性。课文绝大多数选自20世纪80、90年代出版的英美报刊书籍，为适合教学目的对部分内容做了一些删改。
本书为《21世纪大学英语读写教程》第三册。全书共十个单元，供一学期使用。每一单元由同一题材的三篇文章组成。课文A为精读材料，配有阅读词汇、结构、翻译、写作等多种练习，课文B、C不泛读材料，课文B前系统介绍各种基本阅读技能，课文后配有阅读理解练习题。
Unit One
Text A How 1 Got Smart
Text B Coming of Age
Text C Romance and Reality
Unit Two
Text A The Titanic Puzzle Should a good feminist accept priority seating on a lifeboat
Text B Unjust Desserts
Text C Will You Go Out With Me?
Unit Three
Text A The Sense of Wonder
Text B The Innocent Eye
Text C If l Were
Unit Four
Text A College Pressures
Text B College Lectures:ls Anybody Listening
Text C What ls College for?
Unit Five
Text A The ABCs of the U.S.A:America seen with European Eyes
Text B American Values and Assumption
Text C A Foreign Anthropologist's Observation of Americans
Unit Six
Text A Every 23 Minutes
Text B Needed:A License to Drink
Text C My Daughter Smokes
Unit Seven
Text A So What's So Bad About Being So-So?
Text B Stripping Down to Bare Happiness
Text C Quality of Life ls Much More Than a Job
Unit Eight
Text A The Highs of Low Technology
Text B Why I'm Not Going to Buy a Computer
Text C Obsolete Technology
Unit Nine
Text A Space Politics
Text B Message to the Unknown
Text C Your Futrue in Space
Unit Ten
Text A Plain Talk About Handing Stress
Text B Engrgy Walks
Text C Five Methods l Have Used to Banish Worry
Glossary