Reading comp PrepTest 109 · Section 2 · Question 26

Passage

Questions 23-28  .        By the time Bentham turned his interest to the  . subject, late in the eighteenth century, Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal Studies


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Evidence laws in the 18th century (assembled but some weird rules like the prohibition on parties testifying)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Common-law evidence laws in the 18th century had principles that are now considered bizarre (second sentence)
    • Example of a bizarre common-law evidence rule, according to the author:
      • Parties to a case were not allowed to testify (second and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "bizarre" (second sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • More on evidence laws in the 18th century (mechanically excluded evidence, like hearsay, without exceptions)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Although the prohibition on party testimony was more irrational than most evidence laws, most laws were similar to that rule in other ways (first sentence)
    • Example of evidence that was excluded:
      • Hearsay (out-of-court statements), even when it was relevant and reliable, like when the speaker is dead (third and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "extreme in its irrationality" (first sentence), "quite typical" (first sentence), "rational grounds" (second sentence), "mechanically excluded" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Evidence laws' problems (truth unlikely) and Bentham's revolutionary recommendation (allow all evidence with only exceptions)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • All these technicalities made it hard for trials to get to the truth, and change was resisted by legal people's reverence for tradition (first and second sentences)
    • Bentham's views:
      • Allow all evidence that's relevant with only a few narrow exceptions (third sentence)
    • Examples of exceptions:
      • Evidence that is too problematic/expensive, religious confessions (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "morass of "evidentiary technicalities" (first sentence), "unlikely that the truth would emerge" (first sentence), "frustrated" (second sentence), "revolutionary" (third sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's criticism of Bentham's "nonexclusion principle" (some evidence is inherently misleading)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • One problem with Bentham's "nonexclusion principle" is that some evidence is inherently unreliable and more likely to produce a false verdict (first, second, fourth sentences)
      • Bentham also acknowledged that some evidence should be excluded (sixth sentence)
    • Bentham's view:
      • The jury should be trusted to weigh the evidence (third sentence)
    • Examples of evidence that is unreliable, according to the author:
      • Evidence of a defendant's previous crimes (fifth sentence)
    • Examples of evidence that should be treated the same as sacramental based on social interests, according to the author:
      • Conversations between social workers and clients, or between children and parents (last sentence)
    • Author's opinion: "difficulty" (first sentence), "inherently unreliable or misleading" (first sentence), "actually more likely to produce a false jury verdict" (fourth sentence), "prejudicial character of the evidence substantially outweighs its value" (fifth sentence), "why not" (last sentence)

Paragraph 5

  • Paragraph note
    • Author on Bentham's legacy (Bentham's ideas became close to the standard)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • The method underlying Bentham's approach caught on after his death (first sentence)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Although it has more exceptions than they would have liked, the current approach to evidence laws is mainly based on Bentham's philosophy (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "main thurst ... is Bentham's own" (last sentence)

Main Point: Bentham's nonexclusion principle was an imperfect but important idea that contributed to the development of modern evidence laws.

Meta-Structure?

Innovative Subject: This passage most closely matches an Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure.* In such structures, the author describes why a particular person, artistic work, law or legal accomplishment, scientific breakthrough, etc. was unique, pioneering, or disruptive. The "[Subject]" is a stand-in for the innovative figure or concept in the passage. So, this passage could be understood as an "Innovative Approach to Evidence Law" passage.

In passages with an Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure, the main point will be the author's opinion on the innovative subject. The final paragraph gives us a succinct summary of our author's opinion on Bentham's work. So our main point will be similar to the information in that section – something like: "Bentham's nonexclusion principle was an imperfect but important idea that contributed to the development of modern evidence laws."

*But if you wanted to argue that this is an Importance of [Subject] or Old Approach/New Approach passage, we wouldn't exclude your testimony. Those Meta-Structures would certainly help you summarize the main point and map the passage's structure.

Examples: The author lists several examples that illustrate the 18th-century approach to evidence law, Bentham's approach, and the author's issues with Bentham's approach. These examples will definitely come up in a question or two, so highlighting them will help us answer those questions efficiently.

Last Thoughts?

It's OK for an author to have concerns about the topic of an Innovative Subject passage. As you might in real life, authors can have multi-faceted perspectives on their subjects. In other words, our author can think that Bentham is innovative while still harboring some reservations about their philosophy.

Question prompt

Which one of the Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Legal

Strategy Overview

Remind ourselves of the main point of the passage, then head to the answers, focusing on those that line up with the main point and then using our notes/the passage to find the correct answer

Answer Anticipation

For questions that ask us to find a specific detail mentioned in the passage, quickly finding and reviewing that piece of information is paramount. However, the topic in this question stem ("the history of the law of evidence") is a broad topic in this passage, so it would not be a wise use of our time to look through the entire text for relevant information.Instead, we'll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of the main point ("Bentham's nonexclusion principle was an imperfect but important idea that contributed to the development of modern evidence laws"). From there, we can head to the answer choices. If something in an answer choice doesn't seem familiar and isn't reflected in our notes on each paragraph, we shouldn't check the passage to see if it was mentioned. Instead, we'll table it and move on to the next answer choice. If something seems inconsistent with the main point, we can eliminate it. If something seems familiar, consistent with the main point, or reflected in our notes, we'll use our notes/highlights/underlines to find the part of the passage that proves the answer choice must be true. If we can find that confirmation, we'll select that answer choice and move on.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Common–law rules of evidence Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Not quite. Our note for the fifth paragraph says, "Author on Bentham's legacy (Bentham's ideas became close to the standard)." This suggests that some of the common-law evidentiary rules have changed, but it doesn't necessarily imply that all the rules have changed. After all, this answer choice is a universal claim that's hard to support and unlikely to be featured in the correct answer to a Must Be True question. For this reason, we can eliminate — or at least table — (A) without checking the passage, allowing us to move on to the next answer choice.

    Besides, we wouldn't find support for this claim if we re-read the entire passage. The passage never says that all common-law rules have been replaced — just some of them (P5, S1). (A) is out.

  2. B
    Modern evidence law is Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Yes! Our note for the first paragraph is, "Evidence laws in the 18th century (assembled but some weird rules like the prohibition on parties testifying)." Keeping parties from testifying in a case is a very "rigid" rule! But our note for the fifth paragraph says, "Author on Bentham's legacy (Bentham's ideas became close to the standard)." And we know that Bentham advocated for a more inclusive approach to evidence. So, it's fair to say that modern evidence law is less rigid than eighteenth-century evidence law. Based on our notes alone, we can select (B) and advance to the following question.

    But if you wanted to check the passage, you'll see that it says

    that eighteenth-century evidence laws were bogged down by a "morass of evidentiary technicalities" (P3, S1). But now, thanks in part to Bentham's ideas, we have a new system that makes it easier for relevant evidence to be included in trials (P5, S1-S2). (B) is our answer.

  3. C
    Some current laws regarding Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Not quite. Our note for the fifth paragraph is, "Author on Bentham's legacy (Bentham's ideas became close to the standard)." This suggests that Bentham's ideas influenced current laws regarding evidence, but that doesn't mean that the laws didn't derive from common-law traditions. Neither the main point nor our notes say anything about where current laws derive from. For this reason, we can eliminate — or at least table — (C) without checking the passage, allowing us to move on to the next answer choice.

    Besides, we wouldn't find support for this claim if we re-read the entire passage. In fact, the first sentence says that "late in the eighteenth century, most components of modern evidence law had been assembled" (P1, S1). The author then elaborates that these laws are "common-law doctrines" (P1, S2). This suggests that most — perhaps even all — of modern evidence law comes from these common-law doctrines.

  4. D
    The late eighteenth century Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Nope. Our note for the first paragraph is, "Evidence laws in the 18th century (assembled but some weird rules like the prohibition on parties testifying)." If these laws were "assembled" by the eighteenth century, they were probably established before then. So, our notes suggest that (D) is not true.

    If we had to check the passage, it would confirm that (D) is not true. The passage says "modern evidence law" had been assembled by the end of the eighteenth century (P1, S1), implying that there must have been some evidence law before then. (D) is out.

  5. E
    Prior to the eighteenth Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Is this answer choice consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Nope. Neither the main point nor our notes tell us about rules of evidence before the eighteenth century. Plus, this answer choice makes a universal claim that's hard to support and unlikely to be featured in the correct answer to a Must Be True question. For this reason, we can eliminate — or at least table — (E) without checking the passage.

    If we had to check the passage, we'd see that this is not supported. In fact, the first sentence says that "late in the eighteenth century, most components of modern evidence law had been assembled" (P1, S1). The author then elaborates that these laws are "common-law doctrines" (P1, S2). This suggests that most — perhaps even all — of evidence law before the eighteenth century comes from common-law doctrines.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 15%
  2. B Credited 53%
  3. C 26%
  4. D 4%
  5. E 2%

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