Reading comp PrepTest 132 · Section 3 · Question 28

Passage

Questions 21-28  .        Computers have long been utilized in the sphere  . of law in the form of word Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal Studies


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • An exciting prediction that hasn’t come to pass, and why
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Prediction - Computer programs that can practice law
    • Programs have fallen short
    • Why - Difficulty in resolving problems of meaning/applicability

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • One failed approach is discussed
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Approach - Model law as set of rules to be applied
    • Why it failed - Requires interpretations of (sometimes intentionally) undefined laws/terms (far beyond capabilities)
    • Examples

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Another failed approach is discussed
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Approach - Case-based reasoning (compare to precedent)
    • Why it failed - Criteria for similarity set by developer; to work those similarities have to be found by computer system (apparently intractable)

Main Point: Unsurprisingly, attempts to make computer programs that can practice law have failed because of rules that have multiple interpretations and the difficulties in identifying similar precedent.

Key Lines?

Lines 4-6 - An exciting prediction of a product

Lines 8-10 - The products have fallen short

Lines 13-16 - Key reasons they have unsurprisingly failed

Lines 18-23 - One approach to developing the product

Lines 23-25 - Why it failed

Lines 41-44 - Another approach to developing the product

Lines 54-57 - Why it failed

Meta-Structure?

Examples - Paragraph 2 goes into several examples to back up its general contention that these legal programs fail because of interpretation issues. It’s a small part of the passage meant to back up a contention that is only part of the main point, so these Examples don’t define the passage, but it’s likely we’ll get a question or two about them.

Last Thoughts?

A key element as we work through the questions is going to be figuring out which paragraph holds the information key to answering it. While Paragraphs 2 and 3 focus on different approaches to developing the lawyer-replacement programs, there are some similarities between them. They both deal with issues of interpretation - either key legal concepts/language, or cases with similar details. As such, we should really think about which of the two approaches a given question is likely to be asking about before we spend time looking back to the passage!

Question prompt

The examples of situations 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

Review the purpose of the paragraph including Lines 25-30, then define the purpose of these examples in their immediate context and in the broader context of the paragraph/passage

Answer Anticipation

Before we even get any further into this question, we should celebrate. It’s asking about the function of examples. Every example’s purpose is to illustrate a broader point. And that broader point will almost always be stated right before the example is.Before diving into the text itself, though, let’s think about the paragraph including Lines 25-30 - Paragraph 2. That paragraph discussed the rules-based approach to creating a legal reasoning system along with why it failed. So the examples must either highlight what it should have done, or why it failed.Line 25 introduces the examples, so let’s check the sentence before it. That one says that these rules-based systems “underestimated the problems of…” - that’s all we need to know. These examples illustrate the problems with rules-based systems, so let’s find an answer reflecting that.

Answer choices

  1. A
    substantiate the usefulness of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 1-4; Lines 25-26) The useful functions of computers are discussed way back in the first sentence of the passage, far removed from the examples in Lines 25-30. By the time the passage gets there, it’s discussing the shortcomings of a rules-based system, so the examples definitely aren’t supporting computers as useful to legal professionals.

  2. B
    illustrate a vulnerability of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) (Lines 23-30) Bingo. The examples show up right after the Author says that rules-based system developers underestimated the difficulty of solving certain problems, so the examples must illustrate why these systems failed. This answer says as much, making it correct.

  3. C
    isolate issues that computer Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 33-37) This is a hard-to-eliminate answer, as the examples provided do show something that the Author believes computer systems would have difficulty doing. (And if you had an issue with “computer systems” rather than “legal reasoning systems,” we don’t think you can eliminate it based on that since legal reasoning systems are computer systems, just with certain software on them.)

  4. D
    explain how legal rules Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Lines 25-30) The examples in the cited lines don’t involve adapting legal rules to novel situations - they involve situations where legal rules were unclear. It’s the follow-up example that discusses deliberately ambiguous laws that are meant to adapt to novel situations. And even then, it just states that this has happened, it doesn’t explain how it happened.

  5. E
    question the value of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) The cited lines are in Paragraph 2, while precedents were discussed in Paragraph 3 - the one about the case-based systems.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 4%
  2. B Credited 70%
  3. C 17%
  4. D 6%
  5. E 2%

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