Q1

[tara_amber1]

I was able to eliminate most answer choices and got stuck between D and E. I felt that the strong language ("only") should've put up a red flag for me but I didn't think E summarized the passage as well as D did. Can anyone help explain why E is the better choice?

[dbuurmasjsu]

Hi there,

This is my first post here on the forums, so bear with me!

The passage is telling us that the unanimity requirement is important because it provides benefits that outweigh its costs.

Answer choice D tells us that this requirement is only effective when it is done conscientiously, but we can see that the author already believes the jurors are doing this, so this wouldn't be a main point.

For answer choice E, you can see that this coincides with our general main point -- unanimity requirement benefits society and costs less -- bingo

Hope that helps

[ohthatpatrick]

Great response!

And great red flag filter on (D). The "only" is definitely the smelly part.

Consider your down to 2 criteria / decision making:
(D) has an extreme word that might be too strong
vs.
(E) doesn't seem like the best summary of the passage

In general, you should consider a concrete reason why something is WRONG to take priority over a fuzzy reason why you don't want to say something is RIGHT.

If they wrote the correct answer perfectly, it would become too easy to spot.

If I asked you what the main point of this passage is, I hope you would say something like, "The author likes the unanimity requirement and thinks the idea to get rid of it is bad".

Notice that (B) and (D) give us the friendly version of that sentiment: "the unanimity requirement should be maintained".

The correct answer gives us an annoying version of that sentiment:"the unanimity requirement should not be rescinded"

They mean the same thing, but (E) is designed to be less appealing.

In broad strokes, the different between (D) and (E) is between qualified support and firm support.

"Qualified support" means "I'm in favor, but only with a stipulation ... not without qualms ... only in certain cases."

The author almost never waters down her approval of the unanimity requirement. Even when she admits that the unanimity requirement "may lead to inconclusive outcomes" in line 37, she immediately says "a hung jury is certainly preferable to an unjust verdict".

When I read an RC passage, I'm always looking for a Most Valuable Sentence, the sentence that best crystallizes the author's purpose. (Sometimes I have to pick a couple together, but most of the time I can limit myself to one).

In this passage I would definitely pick 21-22.

Normally, the Most Valuable Sentence comes after a But/Yet/However, after the author has introduced the background of a situation or an opposing point.

P1 concludes with critics trying to get rid of the unanimity requirement. As soon as the author chimes in with her first opinion on lines 21-22, I know her Main Point. "Ooooh, she disagrees. She LIKES the unanimity requirement. She doesn't want to lose its benefit."

What is the benefit the author says the unanimity requirement gives us? Line 39-40. It provides a better chance that a trial/verdict will be fair.

So lines 21-22 is saying "the material costs of hung juries don't warrant losing the benefit of a better chance of a fair trial/verdict".

=== other answers ===

(A) the rarity of the jury trials is a very minor point made by the author (not worthy of Main Point), and the dismissive tone of "the usefulness does not need to be reexamined" isn't a great match. Overall, I would feel this one as "everything's pretty much true, but the reason given for supporting unanimity is way too narrow".

(B) The idea that "most hung juries are caused by irresponsible jurors" is contradicted. The author says "hung juries usually occur" when the case is very close, and the author also thinks that hung juries show jurors acting conscientiously.

(C) The author doesn't think that hung juries are a "problem". Not to mention, where is the main character of "unanimity requirement" in this answer choice?

[HughM388]

An apt analogy for this question, and for how LSAC write RC questions, is as follows.

"John's favorite color is red."

According to the passage, which of the following is John's favorite color?

(A) Clouds
(B) Squirrels
(C) Briskly
(D) Purple
(E) Motivation


By the way, the correct answer is (D). Because though the passage explicitly names John's favorite color, and it certainly isn't purple, purple is the only color among the answer choices, and it could be said to contain red (purple = red + blue), which is a piece of general knowledge that we've determined you can reasonably be expected to know for the purposes of this question, though on other questions we will most definitely punish you for making inferences based on information not presented in the question stimulus.