篇章练习（一）

The United States has become “the most religiously diverse nation in the world,” according to Harvard’s Diana Eck in her 2001 book, The New Religious America. Today, Eck writes, the United States has at least 1,200 mosques and more Muslims than Episcopalians, with Islamic faithful and worship houses increasing while several mainstream Protestant denominations are in mild decline. //

Depending on whose figures you use, Muslims have passed or are just about to pass Jews as a share of the American population1. Meanwhile, Eck argues that Los Angeles has become “the most complex Buddhist city in the world” and America has become “the most religiously diverse nation in the world”. The Founders dreamed that America would be a land of spiritual freedom. Americans are now exercising that freedom to a degree perhaps unprecedented in history. The Founders would be proud, if not bewildered, to hear that it is now respectable to be a witch. //

哈佛大学的戴安娜·埃克于2001年出版了《虔诚的新美国》一书，她在书中写到，美国已成为“世界上宗教信仰最多元化的国家。”她说，随着美国虔诚的穆斯林和他们朝拜场所的增加，当今美国至少有1200座清真寺，穆斯林比圣公会教徒还多，而几个新教主流教派的信徒人数却有轻微下降。//

这要看你参照的是那家的数据了，美国人口中穆斯林的数量即将或已经超过了犹太人。埃克还说洛杉矶已成为“世界上最复杂的佛教城市”，美国已经成为“世界上宗教最多元化的国家”。美国的开国元勋们梦想美国将成为一块宗教自由的国土。当前美国人的宗教信仰自由或许已经达到了前所未有的程度。开国元勋们如果知道如今做巫师也受人尊敬，他们也许会感到骄傲，但也许会大惑不解。