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

Short Answer Questions

1. Bryan leaves legal issues to the other lawyers and assumes responsibility to do what?

2. Darrow seeks an early ruling on whether scientific experts may testify, and the judge says he will hear the issue when?

3. Bryan begins to believe that the trial needs to exclude any discussion on what?

4. About how many reporters cover the trial from Dayton?

5. How many high school students testify that Scopes once discussed human evolution with them?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Bryan do upon conclusion of the Scopes trial?

2. How is Bryan at the center of the pretrial publicity?

3. What transpires in the 1950s?

4. What are the primary positions of the defense and the prosecution?

5. How is Dayton left following the trial?

6. Henry Fairfield Osborn approaches the trial in what fashion?

7. Why is it important when Darrow ended?

8. How does the questioning of the jury proceed?

9. Why are court proceedings moved to the courthouse lawn?

10. What did McCarthy-era attacks bring the Scopes trial to symbolize?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In the introduction to Summer of the Gods, Edward J. Larson focuses on the two principal attorneys in the trial. What are the professional backgrounds of Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan? Why are they each so keen on participating in the trial? How do their respective personalities and feelings concerning the causes they believe in affect the trial?

Essay Topic 2

What moment does Larson describe in the Introduction? What is he seeking to do? What individuals are the readers introduced to? What is the status between them?

Essay Topic 3

At the start, the defense challenges the anti-abortion law's constitutionality in a motion to quash the indictment by identifying fourteen separate objections. What does the defense stress? What does the prosecution argue regarding the majority? Why is Darrow's rebuttal important? What reasons does the defense argue that makes the statute illegal? What does he contend regarding the biblical accounts?

(see the answer keys)

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