Scopes trial
1
8.4
- noun
- /skoʊpz traɪəl/
:
juicio de Scopes
- Almost 75 years after the Scopes trial, a new species of the old Darwin vs. creation debate has come to life in a suburban Seattle community.
Examples
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But after the Scopes trial and the rise of theological modernism, religious conservatives turned in on themselves:
Blog text (8) -
The Scopes trial would cast a long shadow over his remarkable career.
Blog text (28) -
I did a research paper on the Scopes trial for government class in high school, using period source materials in the local university's library.
Blog text (4) -
My high school friends, readers of the American Mercury, were up on the Scopes trial as Mencken reported it.
Fiction book (2001) -
The eight-day Scopes trial took a toll on Bryan.
Blog text (28) -
After the Scopes trial, Darwinian thought disappeared as a centerpiece
Academic text (1994) -
Another is to feel depressed that it's 2011 and one of our most populous states is still re-litigating an issue that should have been laid to rest with the Scopes trial.
Academic text (2011) -
The national coverage of the Scopes trial and subsequent film portrayals may have given the impression that science prevailed in that Tennessee courtroom.
Academic text (1994) -
They have a poor understanding of the history of evolution education in the United States. (For example, the Scopes trial did not strike down any laws, and John Scopes was convicted at his trial.)
Academic text (2004) -
The Scopes trial in 1925 became a landmark case in the debate over teaching evolution in schools.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Scopes + trial
The noun phrase is compositionally regular: it pairs a surname with 'trial,' so a learner who recognises 'Scopes' as a name and knows 'trial' can infer it refers to a court case involving Scopes. However, the specific historical significance (the 1925, highly publicized case about teaching evolution) is encyclopedic and requires cultural knowledge, so the full meaning is not predictable from the parts alone.
Etymology
The Scopes trial was a very famous 1925 court case in Tennessee where a teacher named John Scopes was put on trial for 'teaching evolution' because the law had banned it. Because the trial became a public fight over 'science and religion', the name Scopes trial now stands for that larger argument about 'what schools should teach'.