■高校英単語(American History 7_2_5)
出典: Voice of America > Learning English > U.S. History
≪英文≫
Some state legislatures in the more conservative southeastern part of the country passed laws making it a crime to teach evolution theory. In nineteen twenty-five, a young science teacher in the southern state of Tennessee challenged the state's new teaching law.
The teacher -- John Scopes -- taught Darwin's evolution ideas. Officials arrested scopes and put him on trial. Some of the nation's greatest lawyers rushed to Tennessee to defend the young teacher. They believed the state had violated his right to free speech. And they thought Tennessee's law againt teaching evolution was foolish in a modern, scientific society. America's most famous lawyer, Clarence Darrow, became the leader of Scopes' defense team.
Bryan and other religious conservatives also rushed to the trial. They supported the right of the state of Tennessee to ban the teaching of evolution.
The trial was held in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee. Hundreds of people came to watch: religious conservatives, free speech supporters, newsmen and others.
The high point of the trial came when Bryan himself sat before the court. Lawyer Clarence Darrow asked Bryan question after question about the bible and about science. How did Bryan know the Bible is true. Did God really create the earth in a single day. Is a day in the Bible twenty-four hours. Or can it mean a million years.
Bryan answered the questions. But he showed a great lack of knowledge about modern science.
The judge found Scopes guilty of breaking the law. But in the battle of ideas, science defeated conservatism. And a higher court later ruled that Scopes was not guilty.
The Scopes evolution trial captured the imagination of Americans. The issue was not really whether one young teacher was innocent or guilty of breaking a law. The real question was the struggle for America's spirit between the forces of modern ideas and those of traditional rural conservatism. The trial represented this larger conflict.
American society was changing in many important ways during the early part of the twentieth century. It was not yet the world superpower that it would become after World War Two. But neither was it a traditional rural society of conservative farmers and clergy. The nineteen twenties were a period of growth, of change and of struggle between the old and new values.

【終り】
≪問題≫
次の文章(特に青色で示した部分)が左の英文の内容と一致するときはYesを,そうでないときはNoを選んでください。
Yes No 南東部の保守的な州では進化論を教えることを犯罪とする法律が成立した。

Yes No 若い教師スコープは、逮捕されて裁判にかけられた。

Yes No 弁護団の法律家たちは、州法が言論の自由を侵害していると考えた。

Yes No 裁判はテネシー州の小さな町で行われた。

Yes No ブライアン自身は法廷に出席したことはなかった。

Yes No ブライアンは聖書については詳しかったが近代科学はよく知らなかった。

Yes No 若い教師スコープは無罪となったが、上級審で有罪とされた。

Yes No スコープ裁判は、近代的な考え方と伝統的な田舎の保守主義との争いだった。

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