PrepTest 142

Incorrect. (Lines 48-50) This is a part of the analysis put forward by the Author of the passage, but it isn't shown to be a part of the analysis done by lawyers.

Incorrect. (Lines 50-51) The Author states that jurors tend to have little information ahead of the case, but she doesn't talk about how the analysis of whether to use stealing thunder changes if they have more information. And, regardless, this answer reflects the Author's viewpoint, not that of the lawyers.

Incorrect. First, there's no discussion of how opposing lawyers will respond. Second, the discussion of jurors is from the viewpoint of the Author, not of the lawyers.

Correct. Question Type:
Must Be True

Strategy Overview:
Review what lawyers think, and then anticipate an answer based on that

Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
This question asks us to find an answer that a certain viewpoint would agree with. While these usually deal with the Author's viewpoint (and, when the question doesn't ask about one, we default to treating it as asking about the Author), but this one asks about the lawyers. Lucky for us, we've prepared for the exam, so we know that we should always be tagging viewpoints!

And here, we can see that Paragraph 1 and the first part of Paragraph 2 mention what lawyers believe.

Paragraph 1 talks about stealing thunder as a strategy used by lawyers—so lawyers must believe that it's effective in at least some cases. Does Paragraph 1 define what those cases are? Yep—when a weakness is known by opponents and will be "exploited" by them at trial (Lines 4-6), then "many lawyers believe" (Line 7) that information should be offered first in order to undercut it. And outside of them using it implying they find it effective, the Author explicitly states this in Paragraph 2 (Lines 16-17).

That's the extent of the discussion we get of the lawyers' viewpoint, so let's find an answer that lines up with that.

Answer Explanation:
(Lines 4-8) The Author notes that "many lawyers believe" a weakness likely to come out at trial should be revealed by the party with the weakness first. Since whether something is likely to come out in trial necessarily relies on an analysis of how likely it is that the opposing party will bring it up, and they would only bring it up if they believe it'd help them, this answer is correct.

Key Takeaway:
Note how many of these answers reflect the Author's viewpoint instead of the lawyers. In general, questions on RC will ask about the Author's viewpoint. Even when the question is about something the passage states, that refers to what the Author has decided to include. As such, it's very important to always be clear on whose viewpoint the question is asking about, as it's almost guaranteed that there will be answers reflecting an alternative viewpoint, if one exists in the passage. Knowing this can also help you eliminate incorrect answers—if you can attribute the answer to a viewpoint other than the one being asked about, you can safely eliminate it (as long as that viewpoint disagrees with the one in question).

Incorrect. (Lines 11-12; Line 19) First, the Author notes that there haven't been empirical studies on stealing thunder, so legal statistics on this front don't exist. Second, no one says that stealing thunder requires understanding the psychology underlying it! It could be that some best practices have developed based on personal experience rather than a close reading of relevant psychological studies. And, in any case, the lawyers in the passage never talk about those studies, so this answer is out of scope of their viewpoint, which is the one the question cares about.