PrepTest 104

[lcid:3513] Prep Test 104 LSAT — Reading Comp — S2 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 7-14  .        By the mid–fourteenth century, professional  . associations of canon lawyers (legal advocates in  . Christian ecclesiastical Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph Note
    • Phenomenon introduced (professional canon lawyers guilds, unlike other guilds, rarely disciplined members)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Definitions
      • Professional associations of canon lawyers: legal advocates in Christian ecclesiastical courts (first sentence)
      • Christian ecclesiastical courts: courts that dealt with cases involving marriage, inheritance, etc. (first sentence)
    • Comparison
      • Professional associations of canon lawyers did not play a prominent role in enforcing standards of conduct, unlike other guilds at the time and modern professional associations do (second sentences)
    • Example of a professional association of lawyers hobbling conduct enforcement efforts, according to the author:
      • Florentine guild forbade its members to play any role in the discipline of another member (fifth sentence)
      • Few recorded examples of disciplinary enforcement are initiated by clients and not fellow lawyers (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "might expect" (second sentence); "often did" (second sentence); "seems not to have happened" (second sentence); "little fervor" (third sentence); "erring" (third sentence); "some even" (fourth sentence); "few" (last sentence); "apparently" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph Note
    • Two possible explanations for phenomenon (1. canon lawyers were more ethical, or 2. discipline was less efficient)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of two explanations for why canon guilds, rarely disciplined members
      • They all followed the rules, or they didn't but the enforcement mechanisms were so bad no one was caught/punished (first through last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "[a]t first glance" (first sentence); "seem" (first sentence); "possible" (first sentence); "may have" (second sentence); "possible" (last sentence three)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph Note
    • Author on why explanation 2 is more likely (1: civil courts, with similar rules and members, disciplined more frequently)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • The econd explanation is more plausible than the first (first sentence)
      • Unlikely that church lawyers were more ethical than civil court lawyers (last sentence)
    • List of reasons why the second explanation is more likely, according to the author:
      • First reason: Non-church legal courts show plenty of examples of disciplinary proceedings, and these courts had similar rules and members as the church courts (second through last sentences)
    • Author attitude: "makes it clear" (first sentence); "more plausible" (first sentence); "many more" (second sentence); "could well indicate" (third sentence); "seems inherently weak" (last sentence); "especially" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph Note
    • Author on why explanation 2 is more likely (2: church records reveal many complaints about ethics violations)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of reasons why the second explanation is more likely, according to the author (continued from previous paragraph):
      • Second reason: Church authorities complained about ethical failures and lack of disciplinary measures (first sentence)
    • Examples of complaints, according to the author:
      • Council of Basel declared the canon lawyers were lacking ethics and directed Cardinal Cesarini to address the problem (second sentence)
      • In England, there were many complaints about the lack of a functioning discipline system (last sentence)
    • Author attitude: "deplored the shortcomings" (first sentence); "extraordinarily rich" (last sentence)

Paragraph 5

  • Paragraph Note
    • Implications of explanation (caused lawyers to defend themselves rather than discipline members)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to the author:
      • Criticism about ethics in the profession caused solidarity among lawyers, which caused them to start a professional association to defend themselves rather than improve ethics (first through last sentence)
    • Author attitude: "paradoxical result" (first sentence); "apparently" (first sentence); "may actually have" (second sentence); "may also have" (last sentence)

Main Point:

Although professional associations of canon lawyers ostensibly were created to uphold professional standards since the mid-fourteenth century, there weren't many disciplinary proceedings against members because these associations may have focused more on defending members from critics than enforcing ethical standards.

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 2 (P1, S2) - Phenomenon introduced

P2, S1 - Two possible explanations introduced

P3, S1 - The author chooses the second explanation

P3, S2 - First reason why

P4, S1 - Second reason why

P5, S2 - Conclusion regarding the real purpose of the association

Meta-Structure?

Phenomenon/Explanation: This passage utilizes a Phenomenon/Explanation Major Meta-Structure. In the first paragraph, the author introduces the central phenemonon: although other medieval guilds played a prominent role in enforcing their own professional standards, professional associations of canon lawyers did not seem to do this much at all. The author then gives two possible explanations to the rarity of disciplinary proceedings: either all these canon lawyers followed the rules, or they didn't but the enforcement mechanisms were so bad no one was caught or punished. The author then explains why the latter is the more likely reason, using comparison and example minor Meta-Structures to support their explanation.

The main point is generally the author's explanation in a Phenomenon/Explanation passage. The author more or less summarizes their explanation in the last sentence of the passage. But we decided to flesh out the explanation a bit more. So, we summarized the author's explanation as: "Although professional associations of canon lawyers ostensibly were created to uphold professional standards since the mid-fourteenth century, there weren't many disciplinary proceedings against members because these associations may have focused more on defending members from critics than enforcing ethical standards."

Last Thoughts?

This author hits for the minor Meta-Structure cycle — there are comparisons, examples, cause and effect, and lists galore. Given the sheer number of important details in this passage, we expext a higher-than-usual percentage of Minor Point, Author Agree, and Application questions.

Question prompt

The author refers to 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 Florentine guild of lawyers reference in passage, consult notes, and choose an answer choice based on your understanding of that reference in the passage's overall argument

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us why the author inserted the discussion of the Florentine guild of lawyers into the first paragraph. Unless a detail conflicts with the paragraph's purpose, the author probably mentioned that detail to advance the paragraph's role. So reviewing the first paragraph's role, which we hopefully wrote down in the notes on our scratch paper, will generally reveal why the author included that detail.In this case, our note for the first paragraph is, "Phenomenon introduced (professional canon lawyers guilds, unlike other guilds, rarely disciplined members)." Therefore, the reference to the Florentine guild of lawyers is probably there to show how professional canon lawyers guilds, unlike other guilds, rarely disciplined members. Test-takers reading for the minor Meta-Structures may have noticed the Florentine guild reference as an example minor Meta-Structure. That means the Florentine guild reference is probably an example of a canon lawyers guild that *illustrates* the author's point that such guides rarely disciplined their members.With that in mind, we should view the reference and confirm our instinct. Is the Florentine guild an example of a canon lawyers guild meant to illustrate how such guides rarely disciplined their members? Indeed. The author clarifies that the Florentine guild forbade its members to play any role in the discipline of another member (P1, S5). Sounds like they weren't too keen on discipline. They must illustrate the point the paragraph as a whole played. Let's look for that in the answer choices.

Answer choices

  1. A
    introduce a theory about Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this answer choice say that the reference to the Florentine guild illustrates the author's point that such guides rarely disciplined their members?

    Nope. This isn't consistent with our anticipation, so let's eliminate it and move on.

    More specifically, this answer choice is wrong because the author's "theory" (if it can be called that) that these guilds didn't discipline their member was already introduced several sentences before this reference (P1, S2). And if we assume the "theory" refers to the author's explanation, that won't be introduced until the following paragraph (P2, S3). Either way, this answer choice misconstrues the author's argument.

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

    (B) Does this answer choice say that the reference to the Florentine guild illustrates the author's point that such guides rarely disciplined their members?

    Well, this is so vague that we might have to review the previous sentence to see if this is accurate. Upon review, the previous sentence says "Some [guilds] even attempted to hobble efforts at enforcement" (P1, S4). The Florentine guild, which forbade its members from disciplining each other, definitely illustrates that point. So, this answer choice is correct.

    Although this choice is a bit more vague than what we anticipated, it's still close to our anticipation and matches the first paragraph's organization. We can feel confident selecting it and moving on without reviewing the other answer choices.

  3. C
    underline the universality of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this answer choice say that the reference to the Florentine guild illustrates the author's point that such guides rarely disciplined their members?

    Nope. For that reason, we can cross off (C).

    If we needed to look closer at (C), we could see that it's wrong on its own merits. What could the "universality of a method" refer to in the first paragraph? If that refers to guilds forbidding members from disciplining each other, that method is neither universal (as only some guilds did this) nor is it discussed anywhere else than in these two sentences. This can safely be eliminated.

  4. D
    point out a flaw Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this answer choice say that the reference to the Florentine guild illustrates the author's point that such guides rarely disciplined their members?

    No. So, we can immediately eliminate it and move on.

    More precisely, the author never points out a flaw in an argument in this passage. In fact, the first paragraph is factual in nature. It describes a phenomenon; it doesn't present an argument (the author's argument doesn't truly appear until the second paragraph). And if there is an argument in this paragraph, it could only be the author's own argument, with the author using the guild to support that argument, not undermine it!

  5. E
    rebut an anticipated objection Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this answer choice say that the reference to the Florentine guild illustrates the author's point that such guides rarely disciplined their members?

    No. This answer choice does not match our anticipation, so why bother wasting any time debating it? We can eliminate it straight away.

    If you would like a more thorough analysis, this answer choice does not accurately convey the role of the detail in question. The author doesn't propose a "thesis" in the first paragraph. The first paragraph is more factual in nature, with the author describing a phenomenon. The author doesn't offer their thesis (in this case, an explanation) on that phenomenon until the third paragraph. And the objections the author anticipates do not appear until the third paragraph (P3, S4).

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