高级英语课件The_Trial_That_Rocked_the_World.doc

The Trial That Rocked the World John Scopes 目的/重点 Aims of teaching 1. the comprehension of the text and the mastery of the important language points 2. the paraphrase of certain complicated or difficult sentences 3. the enlargement of the students vocabulary 4. the familiarization with the styles of composition and devices of figuration 课文内容 The Trial That Rocked the World John Scopes A buzz ran through the crowd as I took my place in the packed court on thatsweltering July day in 1925. The counsel for my defence was the famous criminal lawyer Clarence Darrow. Leading counsel for theprosecution was William Jennings Bryan, thesilver-tongued orator , three times Democraticnominee for President of the United States, and leader of the fundamentalist movement that had brought about my trial. 　　A few weeks before I had been an unknown school-teacher in Dayton, a little town in the mountains of Tennessee. Now I was involved in a trial reported the world over. Seated in court, ready to testify on my behalf, were a dozen distinguished professors and scientists, led by Professor Kirtley Mather of Harvard University. More than 100 reporters were on hand, and even radio announcer s, who for the first time in history were to broadcast a jurytrial. Dont worry, son, well show them a few tricks, Darrow had whispered throwing a reassuring arm round my shoulder as we were waiting for the court to open. 　　The case had eruptedround my head not long after I arrived in Dayton as science master and football coach at the secondary school. For a number of years a clash had been building up between the fundamentalists and the modernists. The fundamentalists adhered to a literal interpretation of the Old Testament. The modernists, on the other hand, accepted the theory advanced by Charles Darwin -- that all animal life, including monkeys and men, had evolved from a common ancestor. 　　Fundamentalism was strong in Tennessee, and the state legislature had r