The book is based on the 16 episodes carefully chosen from a 100-episode TV play, the Households near the Qinhuai River produced by the Jiangsu TV Station. The episodes, each of which tells an independent story, have pertience with the main scenes and several major characters throughout the stories. The lively short stories, which are very interesting and rich in cultural connotation, colloquial and pleasing to the eye, are suitable for audio-visual teaching. The book is composed of 16 lessons, each of which is an episode, in two volumes. Preview, classroom audio-visual exercises and after-class exercises are designed for each lesson. The recording scripts are attached to the end of the book.