View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the response Darrow is seeking when questioning Bryan in the introduction?

2. Which New Yorker, originally with a chemical engineering doctorate, sees a way to challenge the anti-evolution law?

3. After defeat of the first bill for a ban on teaching evolution, Bryan argues that who should decide what is taught?

4. In addition to Florida, which state passes a minor resolution on the anti-evolution issue in 1923?

5. The scene that the author refers to in his Introduction is said to be reminiscent of what dramatic scenes?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the position that Bryan comes to aid in prosecuting?

2. Why does the National Civil Liberties Bureau change its name to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)?

3. What key individuals come aboard the day after George W. Rappleyea?

4. Why was Scopes seen as the ideal defendant?

5. In what fashion does defense attorney Darrow question Bryan?

6. What role does William Jennings Bryan play in the rise of the anti-evolutionary movement and events leading to the Scopes trial?

7. What role does World War I play in the tensions between fundamentalists and modernists?

8. How is it that this case does not seem normal from the start?

9. Why is it that the ACLU is concerned about the academic freedom around which the Scopes trial centers?

10. What is Georges Cuvier's theory that is more widely accepted than Chevalier de Lamarck's?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What reasons seem to make Dayton an unlikely selection for the trial to take place? What aspects would seem more likely of a town where Scopes' trial would transpire?

Essay Topic 2

Why is the Scopes trial widely regarded as the trial of the century?

Essay Topic 3

What controversies take place regarding daily prayers during the trial? What objections does the defense make, and why? What do they request? What position does the prosecution maintain? Upon hearing the judge's decision, what is expected and what finally results?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 977 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample