PrepTest 125 - Section 3 - Passage 1 - Question 1

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Most of what has been written about Thurgood Marshall, a former United States Supreme Court justice who served from 1967 to 1991, has just focused on his judicial record and on the ideological content of his earlier achievements as a lawyer pursuing civil rights issues in the courts. ███

Intro topic · Thurgood Marshall, lawyer and Supreme Court judge

Main point · Marshall's work with the NAACP had significant impact on public interest law

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Elaborate on main point · Marshall's campaign-style approach was an important shift for public interest law

Represented a shift away from case-by-case litigation

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Explain Marshall's approach · The "test case" strategy

Chose cases that allowed him to test different litigation approaches and involved sympathetic plaintiffs

Explain Marshall's approach · Use of sociological and pyschological statistical evidence

Showed that racial segregation caused harm which violated the Constitution

Critics' perspective · on Marshall's use of statistical evidence

Took cases outside the realm of purely legal discourse

Implications of Marshall's approach · Public interest firms still use his methods

Examples · of campaigns using Marshall's methods

Consumer advocacy, lawmaking though litigation

Revisit main point · Marshall's public interest approach has been widely adopted

Passage Style

Single position

Spotlight

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Main point

In a Spotlight passage, the main point should capture what the author finds interesting, significant, or distinctive about the subject. Here, the author focuses on the impact of Marshall’s legal strategy while he was part of the NAACP. As a lawyer, Marshall used test cases and statistics as part of a legal strategy designed to pursue public interest causes. These techniques were radical at the time, but are now standard aspects of public interest litigation.

In his role ██ █ ██████ ███ ███ ██████ ████████ █████████ █ ██████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██████ █████ █████ ██████████████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ██████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ███████ ██████████████ █████

This doesn’t capture the passage’s focus on the impact of Marshall’s strategies The author doesn’t highlight the fact Marshall’s strategies were successful in arguing against discriminatory laws; rather, the author focuses on the way in which his strategies have become the norm for public interest litigation.

The litigation strategies ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ██████ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ █████ ███████████ ███████████ ███████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████

This best captures the author’s main point, which is that Marshall’s strategies while with the NAACP have changed public interest law and are now standard for public interest litigation.

79%

Although commentary on ████████ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ██ █ ██████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████████████ █ ███████████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █ █████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████ █████████ ███████████

This doesn’t capture the author’s focus on Marshall’s legal strategies while with the NAACP.

In his work ████ ███ █████ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ██████ ████████ ███████ █ ███ ██ ███████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ █ ███████ █████████ ████ ████████ █████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████ ██ ████ █ ███ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ ████

It’s not clear that Marshall “adapted” any tactics. This would suggest that those tactics already existed prior to Marshall’s use of them, but that he changed how those tactics were used. However, we have no indication from the passage that Marshall’s tactics existed before he used them or that he adapted/changed the way in which those already-existing tactics were used.

15%

Contrary to the ██████████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████ ███ █████████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ ██ █ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ████████████ ██ █ ████ ███████ █████ ████████

The main point isn’t about the comparative level of impact of Marshall’s work at the NAACP and Marshall’s work as a Supreme Court justice. The main point is about Marshall’s legal strategies at the NAACP and their impact.

PrepTest 125 - Section 3 - Passage 1 - Question 1

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