Surface molecularly imprinted CdTe nanoparticles with molecular recognitive activity were prepared by reverse microemulsion polymerization with parathion as template molecules, 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane and tetramethoxysilane as the polymerization precursors, and cross-linking. The determination method for parathion was developed on the basis of the fluorescence quenching of quantum dots caused by parathion due to the binding of molecularly imprinted cavities to parathion. The synthesized material had a distinguished selectivity and high binding affinity to parathion compared with chlopyrifos, diazinon, and pyrimithate. Under optimal conditions, the relative fl uorescence intensity of polymers decreased with increases of the concentration of parathion in the range 0.05-1000 μmol/L. The decreasing tendency of fluorescence intensity with increasing parathion concentration abides by the logistical growth curve with a detected limit of 0.218 μmol/L. This method was used to detect for parathion in water samples, for which recoveries ranging from 97.72% to 100.59% were obtained.