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Why doesn't America believe in evolution?

• 09:00 20 August 2006
• From New Scientist Print Edition

Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals: true or false? This simple question is splitting America apart, with a growing proportion thinking that we did not descend from an ancestral ape. A survey of 32 European countries, the US and Japan has revealed that only Turkey is less willing than the US to accept evolution as fact.

Religious fundamentalism, bitter partisan politics and poor science education have all contributed to this denial of evolution in the US, says Jon Miller of Michigan State University in East Lansing, who conducted the survey with his colleagues. "The US is the only country in which [the teaching of evolution] has been politicised," he says. "Republicans have clearly adopted this as one of their wedge issues. In most of the world, this is a non-issue."

Miller's report makes for grim reading for adherents of evolutionary theory. Even though the average American has more years of education than when Miller began his surveys 20 years ago, the percentage of people in the country who accept the idea of evolution has declined from 45 in 1985 to 40 in 2005 (Science, vol 313, p 765). That's despite a series of widely publicised advances in genetics, including genetic sequencing, which shows strong overlap of the human genome with those of chimpanzees and mice. "We don't seem to be going in the right direction," Miller says.

There is some cause for hope. Team member Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California, finds solace in the finding that the percentage of adults overtly rejecting evolution has dropped from 48 to 39 in the same time. Meanwhile the fraction of Americans unsure about evolution has soared, from 7 per cent in 1985 to 21 per cent last year. "That is a group of people that can be reached," says Scott.

The main opposition to evolution comes from fundamentalist Christians, who are much more abundant in the US than in Europe. While Catholics, European Protestants and so-called mainstream US Protestants consider the biblical account of creation as a metaphor, fundamentalists take the Bible literally, leading them to believe that the Earth and humans were created only 6000 years ago.

Ironically, the separation of church and state laid down in the US constitution contributes to the tension. In Catholic schools, both evolution and the strict biblical version of human beginnings can be taught. A court ban on teaching creationism in public schools, however, means pupils can only be taught evolution, which angers fundamentalists, and triggers local battles over evolution.

These battles can take place because the US lacks a national curriculum of the sort common in European countries. However, the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind act is instituting standards for science teaching, and the battles of what they should be has now spread to the state level.

Miller thinks more genetics should be on the syllabus to reinforce the idea of evolution. American adults may be harder to reach: nearly two-thirds don't agree that more than half of human genes are common to chimpanzees. How would these people respond when told that humans and chimps share 99 per cent of their genes?

Human beings, as we know them, developed from earlier species of animals: true or false? This simple question is splitting America apart, with a growing proportion thinking that we did not descend from an ancestral ape. A survey of 32 European countries, the US and Japan has revealed that only Turkey is less willing than the US to accept evolution as fact.

split sth apart 使...分裂

a growing proportion (of people) think that... 越来越多的人认为

accept sth. as fact 接受某事为事实

split .... apart 使有不同观点

力顶

Religious fundamentalism, bitter partisan politics and poor science education have all contributed to this denial of evolution in the US, says Jon Miller of Michigan State University in East Lansing, who conducted the survey with his colleagues. "The US is the only country in which [the teaching of evolution] has been politicised," he says. "Republicans have clearly adopted this as one of their wedge issues. In most of the world, this is a non-issue."用Jon的话来说明美国对进化论的重视　

There is some cause for hope. Team member Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California, finds solace in the finding that the percentage of adults overtly rejecting evolution has dropped from 48 to 39 in the same time. Meanwhile the fraction of Americans unsure about evolution has soared, from 7 per cent in 1985 to 21 per cent last year. "That is a group of people that can be reached," says Scott.

 大学阶段三个关于拒绝的词

程度递增decline refuse reject

The main opposition to evolution comes from fundamentalist Christians, who are much more abundant in the US than in Europe. While Catholics, European Protestants and so-called mainstream US Protestants consider the biblical account of creation as a metaphor, fundamentalists take the Bible literally, leading them to believe that the Earth and humans were created only 6000 years ago.

abundant  account 重点词汇

mainstream主流

Ironically, the separation of church and state laid down in the US constitution contributes to the tension. In Catholic schools, both evolution and the strict biblical version of human beginnings can be taught. A court ban on teaching creationism in public schools, however, means pupils can only be taught evolution, which angers fundamentalists, and triggers local battles over evolution.

These battles can take place because the US lacks a national curriculum of the sort common in European countries. However, the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind act is instituting standards for science teaching, and the battles of what they should be has now spread to the state level.

Miller thinks more genetics should be on the syllabus to reinforce the idea of evolution. American adults may be harder to reach: nearly two-thirds don't agree that more than half of human genes are common to chimpanzees. How would these people respond when told that humans and chimps share 99 per cent of their genes?

reinforce 重点词汇

conduct the survey 进行调查研究 conduct 重点词汇

[+] conduct a poll / an experiment / a research

Words and Expressions

新单词和短语

1.fundamentalism:n 正统派基督教
<I>a usually religious movement or point of view characterized by a return to fundamental principles, by rigid adherence to those principles, and often by intolerance of other views and opposition to secularism.
2.wedge:n 楔子，三角木
<I>a piece of material, such as metal or wood, thick at one edge and tapered to a thin edge at the other for insertion in a narrow crevice, used for splitting, tightening, securing, or levering
e.g.a wedge of cake
3.adherent:n 信徒，追随者
<I>a supporter, as of a cause or individual
4.overlap: 重叠，交迭
<I>a representation of common ground between theories or phenomena
5.solace:n 安慰
<I>the comfort you feel when consoled in times of disappointment
6.overtly:adv 公然地
<I>in an overt manner
e.g. He did it overtly.
7.protestant:n 新教徒
<I>A member of a Western Christian church whose faith and practice are founded on the principles of the Reformation, especially in the acceptance of the Bible as the sole source of revelation, in justification by faith alone, and in the universal priesthood of all the believers
8.biblical:adj 圣经的
<I>of, relating to, or contained in the Bible.
9.metaphor:n 比喻，隐喻
<I>a figure of speech in which a word or phrase that ordinarily designates one thing is used to designate another, thus making an implicit comparison
10.creationism:n 宇宙创造论
<I>the literal belief in the account of creation given in the Book of Genesis
11.syllabus:n 课程提纲
<I>an integrated course of academic studies
12.chimpanzee:n 黑猩猩
<I>a gregarious anthropoid ape (Pan troglodytes) of tropical Africa, having long dark hair and somewhat arboreal habits and exhibiting humanlike behavior and a high degree of intelligence. It is now considered vulnerable to extinction in the wild.
13.chimp:n 黑猩猩
<I>a chimpanzee

文中替换词

1.show-reveal: 显示
2.chimpanzee-chimp:  黑猩猩
3.develop from-descent from/font> 由..进化而来

Collocation

文中搭配
Noun+Noun
1.wedge issue: (在竞选过程中,政客们为挑起选民和竞选对手间的不和而提出的)旨在制造分裂的问题

请看以下图片，就会深刻理解此用法的含义了：三角形的木头为wedge，这样用锤子什么的一敲击，两边的就分开了-split apart!

文中搭配

Verb+Noun
1.conduct the survey:　进行调查
2.trigger battle:　激起论战，战斗
3.institute standard:　制订标准
4.reinforce the idea:　增强这个概念／想法
Adjective+Noun
1.growing proportion:　不断增长的比例
2.evolutionary theory:　进化论
3.average American:　普通美国人
Noun+Preposition
1.ban on: 对...的禁令
Verb+Preposition
1.split apart:　把（人们）分开（成为不同的阵营）
2.contribute tobr/>Adverb+Verb
1.overtly reject:　公然反对

standard 
Verb+Noun
<1>establish/create/set/institute/define/work out/map out standard: 制定标准
e.g.Industry Leaders Join Forces To establish Web3D Standard(title)
e.g.Sony, Matsushita, Sharp, Toshiba, and Hitachi have joined forces to create a standard for Internet-connected televisions.
e.g.MediaNews looks to set standard for papers online.
<2>draft(up)/draw up standardbr/><3>release standardbr/>e.g.Back in 1998, ANSI released its official standard for the C++ programming language.
<4>propose/introduce standardbr/>e.g.Digital camera makers propose standard for printing from Japan Computer Industry Scan in Computers & Technology provided by LookSmart Find Articles.
<5>meet/be up to/reach standardbr/>e.g.Converting textbooks to meet the US national standard for accessibility(title)
<6>lower standardbr/>e.g.Property taxes may lower standard of living(title)
<7>raise/lift standardbr/>e.g.Government is keen on raising the standard of hospitals, including medical college hospitals, to the private sector level.
<8>enforce/implement standardbr/>e.g.Credit Card Companies to Enforce Payment Card Industry Standard(title)
e.g.It was reported that Guangzhou would implement the Phase III national standard from this September 1st, and the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) recently send the state sanction to Guangdong provincial government. 

Word Hyperlink

1.average American:　普通美国人
=ordinary American
   
e.g.It isn't the ordinary American who will benefit from this bill. 
[!]不可以说common American
2.reinforce the idea/argument:
=add weight to the idea/argument
   
e.g.add weight to several anti-war arguments
e.g.By quantifying the destruction of the reefs, scientists hope the Landsat data can add weight to arguments for taking political steps to protect the remaining reefs.

There is some cause for hope. Team member Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education in Oakland, California, finds solace in the finding that the percentage of adults overtly rejecting evolution has dropped from 48 to 39 in the same time. Meanwhile the fraction of Americans unsure about evolution has soared, from 7 per cent in 1985 to 21 per cent last year. "That is a group of people that can be reached," says Scott.

高手们～红色部分是什么意思啊？

最后谁能告诉我文章最后告诉我们Why doesn't America believe in evolution?

我个人认为是原因在六七两段，These battles can take place because the US lacks a national curriculum of the sort common in European countries.

而第2段是说话者对美国人不相信进化论的原因的观点，并不是作者的。作者写第2段的目的是说明为什么进化论这个在其他国家不是个争论问题会在美国成为ISSUE,因为共和党把他政治化了。

第一次参与外刊的评论，请指教

[+]stir up battle/font>

e.g.HONG KONG: Metropop set to stir up readership and advertising revenue battle.

e.g.Any of these efforts would stir up opposition in one part or another of the Pakistani military.

divide sb.=split sb. apart

向大家学习,努力啦.你们是我的榜样,你们是我的方向,你们也是我的力量!