評(píng)論
打印
Fundamentalism was strong in Tennessee, and the state legislature had recently passed a law prohibiting the teaching of any theory that denies the story of creation as taught in the Bible.
在田納西州，原教旨主義勢(shì)力很強(qiáng)，州立法機(jī)構(gòu)最近還通過了一項(xiàng)法令，禁止公開講授任何否定《圣經(jīng)》上宣講的創(chuàng)世說的理論。
The new law was aimed squarely at Darwin's theory of evolution.
這項(xiàng)新法規(guī)的矛頭直接指向了達(dá)爾文的進(jìn)化論。
An engineer, George Rappelyea, used to argue with the local people against the law.
有位名叫喬治拉普利亞的工程師因反對(duì)這項(xiàng)法規(guī)常和當(dāng)?shù)厝诉M(jìn)行辯論。
During one such argument, Rappelyea said that nobody could teach biology without teaching evolution.
有一次辯論中，拉普利亞說，任何人要講授生物學(xué)，就不能不講進(jìn)化論。
Since I had been teaching biology, I was sent for.
因?yàn)槲揖褪侵v授生物學(xué)的，所以他們便把我叫去作證。
Rappelyea is right, I told them.
拉普利亞是對(duì)的，我對(duì)他們說。
Then you have been violating the law, one of them Said.
那么說，你在觸犯法律，他們中的一位說。
So has every other teacher, I replied. Evolution is explained in Hunter's Civic Biology, and that's our textbook.
所有其他的教師也都在觸犯法律，我回答說。亨特所著的《生物學(xué)基礎(chǔ)》中就講到了進(jìn)化論，那是我們使用的教科書。
Rappelyea then made a suggestion. Let's take this thing to court, he said, and test the legalityof it.
于是拉普利亞提出一個(gè)建議。讓我們將此事交付法庭判決，他說，以檢驗(yàn)其是否合法。
When I was indicted on May 7, no one, least of all I, anticipated that my case would snowball into one of the most famous trials in U. S. history.
當(dāng)我于五月七日被正式起訴時(shí)，誰也不曾料到，我本人更沒有料到我的這件案子竟會(huì)越鬧越大，以至成為美國(guó)歷史上最著名的庭審案例之一。
The American Civil Liberties Union announced that it would take my case to the U.S Supreme Court if necessary to establish that a teacher may tell the truth without being sent to jail.
美國(guó)公民自由聯(lián)合會(huì)宣布：如有必要，聯(lián)合會(huì)將把我的案子提交美國(guó)最高法院審理，以確保教師不至于因講授真理而被送進(jìn)監(jiān)獄。
Then Bryan volunteered to assist the state in prosecuting me. Immediately the renownedlawyer Clarence Darrow offered his services to defend me.
接著，布萊恩自告奮勇地要協(xié)助州政府方面對(duì)我進(jìn)行起訴。著名律師克拉倫斯o達(dá)羅也立即主動(dòng)提出要替我辯護(hù)。
Ironically, I had not known Darrow before my trial but I had met Bryan when he had given a talk at my university. I admired him, although I did not agree with his views.
具有諷刺意味的是，在這次審判之前我并不認(rèn)識(shí)達(dá)羅，但我卻見過布萊恩，那是我念大學(xué)的時(shí)候，他來校作過演講。我很欽佩他，盡管我并不贊同他的觀點(diǎn)。
