Reading comp PrepTest 125 · Section 3 · Question 5

Passage

Questions 1-7  .        Most of what has been written about Thurgood  . Marshall, a former United States Supreme Court Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Current focus of scholarship and author’s interest in Marshall’s strategy/methodology
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Traditional scholarship on Marshall:
      • Marshall’s time as Supreme Court Justice
    • Author’s focus:
      • Marshall’s technical legacy — how his work with the NAACP was strategically/methodologically innovative
      • Marshall’s innovation — how he predetermined and carefully crafted/coordinated legal strategy
    • Author’s attitude: “reveals a strategic and methodological legacy” (lines 9-10); “forever changed the landscape of public interest law” (lines 14-15); “meticulously crafted and carefully coordinated” (lines 19-20)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • One aspect of Marshall’s innovative strategy (the test case strategy)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Marshall's innovations:
      • Item 1: Test case strategy — picking cases that have a good chance of changing law and feature sympathetic litigants
    • Author’s attitude: “careful evaluation” (line 23); “essential element” (line 27); “carefully selected” (line 31)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Another aspect of Marshall’s innovation (use of sociological and psychological stats) and criticism of it
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Marshall's innovations:
      • Item 2: Sociological and psychological stats to show public harms in violation of constitutional principles
    • Example of stats Marshall used:
      • The harm of segregation
    • Criticism of Marshall’s use of stats:
      • Gives judges non-legal reasons to reach fuzzy legal decisions

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Marshall’s legacy on public interest law
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author’s view:
      • Public interest firms have increased and used these strategies
      • The legacy is somewhat unexpected, since Marshall’s strategy is used for both consumer advocacy and conservative purposes
      • But Marshall’s strategies are the norm today
    • Author’s attitude: “grown substantially” (line 48); “widely adopted” (lines 48-49); “might seem surprising” (line 57); “have become the norm” (line 61)

Main Point: Focusing on Thurgood Marshall’s work with the NAACP highlights innovative strategies he developed in the field of public interest law that have become standard in that practice today.

Key Lines?

Lines 17-20 - Marshall’s innovation

Lines 21-25, 30-32 - One aspect of the innovation

Lines 34-35 - Another aspect of the innovation

Lines 40-42 - A criticism of this second aspect

Lines 57-59 - A surprising aspect of his legacy

Lines 61-62 - His legacy

Meta-Structure?

Innovative Subject: While much more common in Humanities passages, a discussion of a subject’s innovation is one of the most common Meta-Structures in the RC section. Here, the passage focuses explicitly on innovations spearheaded by Marshall and the NAACP in the public interest space. The innovation is described in Lines 17-20, two aspects are then explored through Paragraphs 2 and 3, and the legacy of these innovations (including a surprising one) is discussed in Paragraph 4. When a passage falls into the Innovative Subject Meta-Structure, the main point focuses on that innovation, as reflected in our main point above.

Examples: The passage provides a couple of examples in a few places. First, the author discusses examples of the type of sociological and psychological statistics used by Marshall in his innovative strategy (Lines 35-37). Later, the author presents examples of groups that have used this strategy in more recent times (Lines 51-54). Both of these are fairly limited in scope and back up minor points made by the author, so we should expect a question or two on them, but they won’t be a major focus of the questions.

Last Thoughts?

One element that has a solid chance of being the feature of a question is the “surprising” use of Marshall’s strategy by conservative public interest lawyers. When an author notes that something is surprising or unexpected, it almost always gets asked about, so be sure to note such features when they show up!

Question prompt

The passage provides 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

This question asks us to infer a statement that must be true. Such questions can be very challenging. This question provide little indication as to the topic of the correct answer or where it’ll show up in the passage. Moreover, the correct answer probably won't restate something from the passage. Instead, the question will likely require us to draw a connection between a few different pieces of information. As such, 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 (either by reviewing what we said after reading the passage or by rereading our answer to the main point question). From there, we can head to the answers, deferring on those that don’t line up with the main point. For those that do, we’ll use our notes and the passage to see if it’s correct.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The ideological motivations for Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Do you recall reading that the ideological motivations for Marshall’s work with the NAACP changed during his tenure on Supreme Court?

    Probably not. If you can’t remember reading this, it’s better to table or eliminate this choice, rather than review the passage to verify whether this answer choice is supported.

    Besides, we wouldn’t find such support if we reviewed the entire passage. When discussing Marshall’s work on the Supreme Court, the author never mentions his ideological motivations. Even though the author does mention the ideological motivations of his earlier work as a lawyer, but there’s no indication they shifted during his later career.

  2. B
    Marshall declined to pursue Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Do you recall reading that the Marshall didn’t pursue some cases that were aligned with the NAACP’s goal because he thought the public might not have a favorable view of the plaintiff?

    Probably! After all, this was an integral feature of Marshall’s test case strategy. Marshall’s test case strategy,involved in part “choosing the right plaintiff” who was “sympathetic” and had “public appeal.” This suggests that he didn’t pursue cases where the plaintiffs weren’t sympathetic and didn’t have public appeal, making this the correct answer. We would be justified in selecting (B) and advancing to the next question.

  3. C
    Marshall's tactics were initially Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Do you recall reading that some members of the NAACP opposed Marshall’s tactics?

    Probably not. If you don’t remember this, we recommend deferring on or eliminating this answer choice rather than reviewing the passage.

    Besides, we couldn’t find support for this choice if we reviewed the entire passage. Whenever the NAACP is discussed, the broader organization is said to be in lockstep with Marshall. And when the author mentioned that some people criticized Marshall’s strategies as radical departures from traditional approaches, the author never said that this criticism was raised by others within the NAACP.

  4. D
    Marshall relied more on Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Do you recall reading that Marshall relied more on expert testimony in lower courts?

    Perhaps not. If this doesn’t sound familiar, we recommend resisting the urge to review the passage to see if it’s supported, and instead tabling or eliminating (D).

    At any rate, we wouldn’t find any support for (D) if we reviewed the entire passage. Although the author mentions expert testimony, the author never says that Marshall used this strategy more often in lower and higher courts. So, this answer is unsupported.

  5. E
    Marshall's colleagues at the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Do you recall reading that Marshall’s colleagues in the NAACP later revised his methods and applied them to different areasmore on expert testimony in lower courts?

    Probably not. Again, if this doesn’t seem familiar, it’s better to table this answer choice and review any that you haven’t already eliminated.

    Besides, we wouldn’t be able to find support for this claim if we re-read the entire passage. Paragraph 4 discusses the legacy of Marshall and these strategies, and while other public interest firms are said to have adopted these strategies, there’s no discussion of the NAACP revising and extending their application without Marshall.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 4%
  2. B Credited 77%
  3. C 4%
  4. D 5%
  5. E 10%

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