Foreword List of Tables List of Figures List of Abbreviations Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Literature Review 2.1 Studies of suppression and reading 2.2 Studies about the role of suppression in language comprehension 2.2.1 Suppression in L2 comprehension process 2.2.2 Suppression in EFL listening comprehension 2.2.3 Suppression in L2 reading comprehension Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework 3.1 Theory of Structure Building 3.2 Enhancement and suppression 3.3 The role of suppression 3.3.1 Suppression in understanding words 3.3.2 Suppression in anaphoric reference 3.3.3 Suppression in eataphoric access 3.3.4 Suppression in forgetting surface information 3.4 The relation between the current study and Structure Building Chapter 4 Research Design 4.1 Research questions 4.2 Subjects 4.3 Instruments 4.4 Procedures of research English Proficiency Test English Reading Test Resolution of Co-referring Expression Chapter 5 Data Analysis and Discussion 5.1 Data analysis 5.1.1 Correlation analysis 5.1.2 Path analysis 5.2 Theoretical explanation 5.2.1 Suppression and building of mental representations in L2 reading 5.2.2 L2 Reading and building of mental representations 5.2.3 L2 Language proficiency and building of mental representations 5.2.4 L2 Reading and L2 language proficiency 5.3 Integrated analysis 5.3.1 Correlation between L2 reading and building of mental representations 5.3.2 Correlation between L2 language proficiency and building of mental representations 5.3.3 Correlation between L2 reading and L2 language proficiency 5.3.4 Suppression in the correlation of the three variables Chapter 6 Conclusions and Implications 6.1 Conclusions 6.2 Limitations and implications References English Part Chinese Part Appendix Ⅰ Appendix Ⅱ Appendix Ⅲ