¡Avance!: Intermediate Spanish is an exciting program for second-year students of Spanish. In response to requests from many users of the highly acclaimed Pasajes series, McGraw-Hill is pleased to publish the Second Edition of this single volume version, which distills the very best of Pasajes: Lengua, Cultura, and Literatura. The result is a comprehensive yet manageable program that enriches students’ language foundation in thematic vocabulary and grammatical structures with a broad selection of literary and cultural readings. The overall goal of ¡Avance! is the development of functional, communicative language ability, accomplished through reinforcement, expansion, and synthesis. Contextualized activities that review language and foster skill development provide the core of ¡Avance! At the same time, the growing interest in cultural competence coupled with the desire to introduce students to literature at the intermediate level motivates the inclusion of cultural and literary texts in alternate chapters. As a result, ¡Avance! meets the professional demand that instructional materials be not merely contextualized but also content-rich and interesting to today’s students.