LSAT 150 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q23

RC Question 23 Explanation

DISCUSSION: You have to start backwards on this one: line 7 of passage A. That line says some people fear judges will be really bad at research and produce crappy, wrong results.

So we need to find a line in passage B where the author says that judges can’t research. The answers are between lines 38-60, so you can just skim that section of the passage.

___________

1. This line refers to experts.
2. This line refers to trial judges. Here, the author was commenting favourably on how trial courts find facts. This is a different process from appellate courts. In passage B, the author is saying appellate court judges shouldn’t do research.
3. This line refers to live comments from experts, a good thing.
4. CORRECT. The full line says “An appellate court….substitutes its own question research results”
    
   So this line is referring to appellate judges, and says they will use bad research.
5. This is close. But outside the record doesn’t necessarily mean “bad”. It instead means something outside of the court record from the trial. The author’s point is that going outside this record strongly risks producing bad results. But, the results aren’t wrong per se. D better expresses the idea that appellate court judges lack the ability and procedure to find facts.