PrepTest 113

[lcid:3548] Prep Test 113 LSAT — Reading Comp — S1 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 1-7  .        The jury trial is one of the handful of democratic  . institutions that allow individual citizens, Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Legal


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Author on unanimity requirement in jury trials (crucial component that spurs full deliberation) and critics' view on requirement (too costly, should be reduced)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • The unanimity requirement is a crucial component of jury trials that compels the jury to engage in full and true deliberation before reaching a verdict (second and fourth sentences)
    • Critics' view:
      • The unanimity requirement is too costly and sometimes results in retrials; the requirement should be lowered to allow for one or two dissenting jurors (fifth and last sentences)
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to the author:
      • The unanimity requirement causes juries' deliberation to be full and true (fourth sentence)
    • Cause-and-effect relationship, according to the critics:
      • The unanimity requirement causes the deliberation process to take longer and sometimes causes retrials (fifth sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "important" (first sentence), "crucial component" (second sentence), "fully and truly" (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's rebuttal of criticism (only a small fraction of cases end in hung juries; hung juries are evidence that jurors are doing their job)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • The costs of hung juries don't outweigh the benefits of the unanimity requirement (first sentence)
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • The vast majority of cases don't make it to trial; the vast majority of cases that make it to trial don't result in a hung jury (second and third sentences)
      • Hung juries are better evidence of a jury doing its job when the case is close than evidence of a flaw in the criminal justice system (fourth and last sentences)
    • Author's opinion: "do not warrant losing the benefit to society" (first sentence), "vast majority" (second sentence), "small fraction" (third sentence), "does not demonstrate a flaw" (fourth sentence), "rather suggests" (fourth sentence), "certainly preferable to an unjust verdict" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • More rebuttal (promotes fairness, reduces likelihood that innocent people are convicted, values each juror's opinion)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • The unanimity requirement promotes fair outcomes, reduces the likelihood of innocent convictions, and allows each juror's opinions to be heard and carry weight (first through last sentences)
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • The unanimity requirement provides a better chance that a trial and verdict will be fair (first sentence)
      • Eliminating the unanimity requirement would make it more likely that innocent people are convicted (third sentence)
    • Author's opinion: "provides a better chance" (first sentence), "fair" (first sentence), "would only increase the opportunity for such mistakes" (second sentence), "important and necessary" (third sentence), "effective deliberation requires" (third sentence), "would be undermined" (last sentence),

Main Point: Even though hung juries are costly, the benefits vastly outweigh the cost.

Meta-Structure?

Rebutting Critics: We think the Rebutting Critics Meta-Structure best fits this passage's structure.* In a Rebutting Critics passage, the author presents criticisms of the subject matter, before mounting a defense against those critiques. This pattern matches the argument structure of the passage perfectly.

In the first paragraph, the passage introduces us to an important aspect of jury trials: the requirement that a jury's decision be unanimous. There are some critics, however, who think that this requirement is a "costly relic" (P1, S5) and that allowing a couple of dissenters would keep trials from being dragged out by hung (undecided) juries. In the next two paragraphs, the author defends the unanimity requirement. The author argues that that hung juries are infrequent and that when they do occur, they happen for good reason. Since a unanimous verdict is such a powerful tool for preventing injustice in the legal system, it is well worth any resulting inefficiencies.

The main point of a Rebutting Critics passage will be the author's central defense. To anticipate this main point, we can look for whether the author provides a conclusion that summarizes their defense. At the beginning of the second paragraph, the author offers a statement summarizing their defense. It reads, "the material costs of hung juries do not warrant losing the benefit to society of the unanimous verdict" (P2, S1). Therefore, we can anticipate a main point that looks very similar. Something like "Even though hung juries are costly, the benefits vastly outweigh the cost."

*Since the author disagrees with the critics' viewpoint, you might see this as a Criticizing a Viewpoint passage. There is considerable overlap between these types of Meta-Structures, and classifying the passage this way would still help you reach a solid understanding of the argument.

Last Thoughts?

There's plenty of author's attitude here. Tracking the author's attitude is one of our primary jobs as we read Reading Comprehension passages. Doing so will help us understand the Meta-Structure and the main point and even predict where the author's argument will go. This author is emphatically supportive of the unanimity requirement, and we can be certain of encountering some questions about this.

Question prompt

It can be inferred Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

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

Question Type

Legal

Strategy Overview

Review the main point, and use notes or highlighted/underlined text in the passage to recall the author's attitude, and find the answer that best reflects your understanding of the main point/author's attitude.

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us about the author's view, but doesn't provide any insight into the topic of the correct answer or where the supporting information might show up in the passage. This means the correct answer is likely to relate back to the author's main point. 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). We determined that the main point of the passage is "Even though hung juries are costly, the benefits vastly outweigh the cost."We can also review any notes about the author's attitude or any text we highlighted because it expresses the author's opinion. After doing that, we can head to the answer choices, tabling those that don't line up with the main point. For those answer choices that conform to the author's main point, we'll use our notes and the passage to see if it's correct.

Answer choices

  1. A
    Hung juries most often Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this consistent with the author's main point or what we reviewed about the author's attitude?

    Nope. Our note for the second paragraph says that "hung juries are evidence that jurors are doing their job." That would suggest that the author would disagree with this statement. The author would argue that jurors dissent because they are doing their job, not because of an error in judgment. We can eliminate (A) without checking the passage.

    And if we did check the passage, we'd see that the author says that hung juries happen "when the case is very close—that is, when neither side has presented completely convincing evidence" (P2, S5). That doesn't sound like an error in judgment to us!

  2. B
    Aside from the material Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Is this consistent with the author's main point or what we reviewed about the author's attitude

    Neither the main point nor our notes bring up whether the criminal justice system has flaws other than the material costs of the hung juries. Moreover, the author wouldn't characterize the material costs of hung juries as a "flaw." According to our note for the second paragraph, "hung juries are evidence that jurors are doing their job." So, we can eliminate (B) without checking the passage.

    Besides, if we wouldn't find any support for this claim if we re-read the entire passage. The author doesn't discuss the criminal justice system outside of the unanimity requirement.

  3. C
    The fact that jury Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this consistent with the author's main point or what we reviewed about the author's attitude?

    Not quite. The author's main point doesn't suggest that there are flaws in the jury system — the author argues that the jury system's unanimity requirement benefits society! So, we can eliminate (C) without checking the passage.

    Still, some test-takers are tempted by this option. he passage does say that "jury trials are relatively rare" (P2, S2), and this fact is mentioned in support of the claim that the material costs of hung juries are low. However, (C) does not say that this fact makes the cost of hung juries insignificant, but rather that it "renders any flaws in the jury system insignificant." Like (B), this answer choice is far too broad for us to infer. The passage only discusses hung juries, so we don't know what the author thinks any other possible flaws in the jury system.


    (D) Is this consistent with the author's main point or what we reviewed about the author's attitude?

    Yes! We know from our understanding of the passage's main point and tone that our author thinks "hung juries are acceptable." Our note for the second paragraph also says that "hung juries are evidence that jurors are doing their job." Since this answer choice is consistent with the author's main point, we can be very confident that the author would agree with it.

  4. D
    Hung juries are acceptable Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (E) Is this consistent with the author's main point or what we reviewed about the author's attitude?

    Not at all. Our note for the second paragraph also says that "hung juries are evidence that jurors are doing their job." Our note for the third paragraph says that the unanimity requirement "values each juror's opinion." This means that hung juries — a consequence of the unanimity requirement — occur because the dissenting juror's opinion is receiving a fair hearing, causing the jury to be deadlocked. We can eliminate

  5. E
    Hung juries most often Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) without checking the passage.

    If we did check the passage, we'd see that the author syas hung juries usually happen "when the case is very close—that is, when neither side has presented completely convincing evidence" (P2, S5). So, the author never makes the claim in (E).

What this tests

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