Self-study
Passage A.
P1
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Topic of passage A ·
Reasons to not prosecute
P2
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Premise 1 ·
Laws are overinclusive
They end up accidentally forbidding some acts that weren't meant to be forbidden.
Premise 2 ·
Always enforcing overinclusive laws means harming the innocent
Premise 3 ·
Instead, can choose to sometimes not prosecute ("discretionary nonenforcement")
P3
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Raise question ·
How law enforcement actually decides if/when to not prosecute
Does law enforcement actually prosecute for acts that weren't intended to be punished?
Author's perspective ·
Law enforcement mostly chooses not to prosecute acts that weren't intended to be punished
Punishing acts that weren't meant to be punished ("capricious enforcement") does occur, but it's not the norm because legislative oversight helps to counteract it.
███████ █
P4
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Problem ·
Overdue water bills
Solution ·
Selectively punish only some residents
P5
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Alternative solution ·
Lien
Overdue bills are collected later, when the property is sold
P6
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Problem with alternative solution ·
Liens can't be used for unpaid water bills
Author's solution ·
Expand the law to allow liens for unpaid water bills
Passage Style
24.
Which one of the following ██████████ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ ███████ ██
a
Most water customers ██ ███ ████ ███ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ██████
Although we know that 231,000 cusomters are late paying their water bills, we don’t know whether this constitutes “most” (over half) customers.
b
Most of the ██████████ ████ ███████████ █████ █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ███████████ ██████████████
Although officials plan to target only high-income neighborhoods when cutting off water, we don’t know whether “most” (over half) of residences with outstanding bills are in these neighborhoods.
c
It is appropriate ██ ████ ███ ███ █████ ██ ███████████ █████████ ██ ███ ████ ███ ███ █████ █████ █████ █ ███ ████ █████
Passage B doesn’t discuss what is appropriate for people who are only a few days late in paying their water bills. It mentions that some high-income residents who haven’t paid in months or decades are in “no position to complain,” but this doesn’t reveal what the author thinks is appropriate for those who are only a few days late in paying bills.
d
In recent years, ███ ████ ███ ███████ ██ █████ ██████ ███ ███ █████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ████ ██████ █████ █████ ██████
e
The only reasonable ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ █████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ██ █████ █ ███ ████ ██████████ █████ █████ ██ ██████
The author doesn’t suggest that this is “the only” reasonable solution. Although the author suggests that it’s one solution, we have no reason to think the author thinks there’s no other reasonable solution.