This semester-long course is aimed at helping students to become successful users of English. Apart from listening and writing practice, we will have close reading of literature. Denotations and connotations as well as issues such as gender, race, and class raised by the texts will be discussed in class for an in-depth understanding of both the language and the content. After each reading, questions will be given in class for group discussion and oral presentation. For this semester, we will study a short story by Kate Chopin, a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., an interview by Vibhuti Patel, and essays by Dahlia Lithwick, Freeman J. Dyson, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Anna Quindlen, Cheryl Lu-lien Tan, and B. J. Lee.