PrepTest 150 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 22

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Passage A.

Trial court judges oppose independent research · They say it distorts the adversarial system and that judges aren't that good at research

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Author's criticism · The judges' concerns don't justify an absolute ban on independent research by judges

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Support 1 · Adversarial system doesn't handle specialized knowledge (like science) well

Independence research for specialized knowledge can help.

Support 2 · Trial structure reduces possibility of reaching bad research results

Independent research only supplements the parties' evidence.

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Author's perspective · Appellate courts should not do independent research

Trial court judges can do whatever they want. But appellate courts shouldn't do research.

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Support · Appellate courts don't have important tools for figuring out what's true

Live testimony from experts can help judges understand scientific stuff, and cross-examination of those experts can help discover what's true. Appellate judges don't get these things, since they happen only at the trial level.

Support · Trial courts determine the facts; appellate courts shouldn't intrude on this

Support · Appellate courts who do research risk reaching bad results; they also shouldn't read stuff that wasn't presented to the trial court

Passage Style

22.

It can be inferred that ████ ██████ █████ █████ ████ ██ ██████ ███████ ███████████ █████████ ████ ████████

Question Type

Author’s perspective

Implied

Split Approach: After passage A, eliminate any answer choice that isn’t supported as something author A would agree with. Then, after passage B, choose the remaining answer choice that author B would agree with.

Sequential Approach: We’re asked what both authors would agree on if judges conduct independent research, but author B argues that appellate judges shouldn’t conduct independent research at all, and he doesn’t seem to take a stance on what trial judges should do. This one is hard to predict, but we know that both authors think judges’ research shouldn’t be a substitute for the research presented by opposing parties. We should use POE on the answer choices, keeping that general point of agreement in mind.

should be constrained ██ ███ █████████ ██ █ █████

Author A would agree. She argues that part of what makes independent research okay is that the research is guided by the structure of a trial.

Author B would agree. He argues that independent research is inappropriate at the appellate level because that research isn’t handled through the structure of a trial. He must believe that, if independent research is performed at all, it should be done so within the structure of a trial.

62%

is typically confined ██ █████████ ████████ ███████

Author A doesn’t suggest what kinds of sources judges typically use when doing independent research. Neither does author B.

20%

replaces, rather than ████████████ ███████████████ ████████

Anti-supported from author A’s perspective. She states the opposite.

should be conducted ██ ███ █████ █████ ███ ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████

Unsupported from author A’s perspective. She doesn’t discuss the appellate level at all.

12%

usurps the trial ███████ ████████████ ████████

Anti-supported from author A’s perspective. She says that when trial judges perform independent research, it supplements, rather than replaces (i.e., usurps), the way evidence is presented in trial courts.

PrepTest 150 - Section 4 - Passage 4 - Question 22

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