This is Textbook 1 of A New Chinese Course series, starts from the Chinese phonetics and progresses gradually to the dialogue training. Altogether there are 30 units, with 10 for phonetics, and 20 for dialogues. Seven characters (Ding Wenyue, Tian Zhongping, Linda, Susan, David, Wang Yunshan, Roger) run through the whole book. Five topics such as Individual, Family, School, Friends, and Society are cycled four times. Each lesson is structured in the order of "text – new words – functions - notes". Illustrations for dialogues are provided. Appendix such as Vocabulary, Table of Cycles of Topics, Outline of Functions, Index of Grammar Points can be found at the end of the textbook.