Flashcards: Inferences About the Opinions and Beliefs of Other People in Law Passages

Adapted from The Path of Law, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1897)

When we study law we are not studying a mystery but a well known profession. We are studying what we shall want in order to appear before judges, or to advise people in such a way as to keep them out of court. The reason why it is a profession, why people will pay lawyers to argue for them or to advise them, is that in societies like ours the command of the public force is intrusted to the judges in certain cases, and the whole power of the state will be put forth, if necessary, to carry out their judgments and decrees. People want to know under what circumstances and how far they will run the risk of coming against what is so much stronger than themselves, and hence it becomes a business to find out when this danger is to be feared. The object of our study, then, is prediction, the prediction of the incidence of the public force through the instrumentality of the courts.

The means of the study are a body of reports, of treatises, and of statutes, in this country and in England, extending back for six hundred years, and now increasing annually by hundreds. In these sibylline leaves are gathered the scattered prophecies of the past upon the cases in which the axe will fall. These are what properly have been called the oracles of the law. Far the most important and pretty nearly the whole meaning of every new effort of legal thought is to make these prophecies more precise, and to generalize them into a thoroughly connected system. The process is one, from a lawyer's statement of a case, eliminating as it does all the dramatic elements with which his client's story has clothed it, and retaining only the facts of legal import, up to the final analyses and abstract universals of theoretic jurisprudence. The reason why a lawyer does not mention that his client wore a white hat when he made a contract, while Mrs. Quickly would be sure to dwell upon it along with the parcel gilt goblet and the sea-coal fire, is that he foresees that the public force will act in the same way whatever his client had upon his head. It is to make the prophecies easier to be remembered and to be understood that the teachings of the decisions of the past are put into general propositions and gathered into textbooks, or that statutes are passed in a general form. The primary rights and duties with which jurisprudence busies itself again are nothing but prophecies. One of the many evil effects of the confusion between legal and moral ideas, about which I shall have something to say in a moment, is that theory is apt to get the cart before the horse, and consider the right or the duty as something existing apart from and independent of the consequences of its breach, to which certain sanctions are added afterward. But, as I shall try to show, a legal duty so called is nothing but a prediction that if a man does or omits certain things he will be made to suffer in this or that way by judgment of the court; and so of a legal right.

The number of our predictions when generalized and reduced to a system is not unmanageably large. They present themselves as a finite body of dogma which may be mastered within a reasonable time. It is a great mistake to be frightened by the ever-increasing number of reports. The reports of a given jurisdiction in the course of a generation take up pretty much the whole body of the law, and restate it from the present point of view. We could reconstruct the corpus from them if all that went before were burned.

With which of the following positions would the author of this passage most likely disagree?

There is nothing irrelevant to the practice of law.

In practicing law, one can only make predictions on how a particular case might turn out, and never certain ones.

While one can never learn every fact of the law, such learning is unnecessary to mastering the law.

Legal principles are mainly aids to help guess how a law case will turn out.

While there may be a relationship between morality and law, the law is not simply a codification and enforcement of ethical principles.

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LSAT scores form the most important part of law school applications, and this weight can make preparing to face the exam a nerve-wracking experience. Many students choose to focus their review on the Logical Reasoning and Analytical Reasoning sections of the exam, as these sections most directly test analytical abilities in ways that may not have been covered directly in previous coursework. The test’s logic games are typically understood by applying logic to careful diagramming, whereas one’s ability to understand the nuts and bolts of a few sentences of logical argumentation requires similar skill with logical deductions. In the midst of the methodical logic that is at the heart of these sections, the Reading Comprehension section of the LSAT may seem like a less-imposing outlier. Previous success on the reading sections of other standardized exams may give test-takers false confidence that leaves them unprepared on test day and with a lower score than they otherwise could have achieved through more balanced preparation. The LSAT’s Reading Comprehension section determines a quarter of your overall score, so focusing your studies exclusively on other sections can be a recipe for disaster. While sharpening your logical acumen, you should not neglect brushing up on your ability to work through longer prose passages while picking up on all of their subtle details. Whether you need LSAT tutoring in AtlantaLSAT tutoring in Houston, or LSAT tutoring in San Francisco, working one-on-one with an expert may be just the boost your studies need. 

What makes the LSAT’s Reading Comprehension section so demanding? For one, the length and number of passages it includes present most test-takers with a challenge. LSAT Reading Comprehension passages are typically around five hundred words long, and five passages appear on each test, two of which are shorter and analyzed together. The section only lasts for thirty-five minutes, however, presenting readers with a need to balance care with speed. In addition, LSAT Reading Comprehension passages are drawn from a wide range of topics in the humanities, physical sciences, natural sciences, and law. Passages are typically written in a dense style about complex topics, arranging more obstacles between test-takers and correct answers. Finally, LSAT Reading Comprehension questions are themselves quite idiosyncratic. Whereas most reading tests include questions that are directly answered in the passage, the LSAT’s Reading Comprehension section asks you to not only locate relevant information, but make complex and subtle deductions based on it. You may be asked to surmise the effect new evidence has on an author’s argument, or consider what must or might be true based on what has been stated. In addition, each LSAT Reading Comprehension section includes the analysis of a pair of passages, setting the stage for questions that ask you to compare and contrast aspects of each argument on this part of the test. Varsity Tutors also offers resources like free LSAT Reading Diagnostic Tests to help with your self-paced study, or you may want to consider an LSAT Reading tutor.

How can one best prepare for all of these challenges? Practice, practice, practice. Only by working through a good deal of practice material of appropriate difficulty can you get a clear picture of your own abilities and calibrate your reading speed so that you can get through all of the passages without missing crucial details. Varsity Tutors’ free LSAT Reading Comprehension Flashcards can help you do just this by helping you get a better idea of your own particular skill set. Our LSAT Reading Comprehension Flashcards are each drawn from the various types of passages and questions used on the LSAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation of the reasoning used to arrive at the correct answer, and data about how long you took to answer each question is also included in the feedback you receive. Registering on our Learning Tools website allows you to save your results and track your progress. In addition to the LSAT Reading Flashcards and LSAT Reading tutoring, you may also want to consider taking some of our free LSAT Reading Practice Tests.  By dedicating time to preparing yourself for the Reading Comprehension section as well as the other sections of the LSAT, you practice all of the skills you will need and be ready for whatever challenges your particular exam presents.

 

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