#22 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Please post below with any questions!

[emekj]

Hi! Can you explain to me where in passage B it states that independent research should be contained by the structure of the trial? I see where the author of A states this, but i do not see where this is said in B

[chian9010]

I have the same question..would like to know why A is the correct answer! Thank you!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Emejk and Chian,

Let's start with passage A. The author of passage A is pretty clearly in favor of judicial research, and around line 25 the author describes how the trial itself can provide stricture on the independent research. Passage B is a bit less clear, but we can still find support that the author would agree with answer choice (A). As the author of passage B talks at length about problems with the appellate court conducting independent research, they also provide support for the trial court conducting said research. Passage B describes how a trial court can use experts to explain and apply the research to a specific case in trial, can weigh the reliability of witnesses and testimony, and more.

Hope that helps!

[ntusss]

Hi PowerScore Staff,

I'm a bit confused about why (B) is wrong.

The question asks us: if judges conduct their own research, it can be inferred that both authors would agree that research...?

(B) says: if judges conduct their own research, that research "is typically confined to standard, reliable sources".

I found that lines 6-9 in passage A ("fear that judges ... may wind up using ... discredited scientific materials") and lines 39-43 in passage B ("adverse parties can test the credibility and reliability of the literature") seem to support (B), but I'm not sure if that's a decent inference.

During review, I've come up with another interpretation of both passages, and I want to confirm if my interpretation is correct:

The author of passage A seems to suggest that judges should not fear conducting their own research due to the fact that they may end up finding the wrong materials, because the trial structure helps correct this error, and the author of passage B seems to suggest that it's the "testimony and cross examination" that makes independent research allowed at a trial level. So it seems like both passage A and passage B focus on "testimony and cross examination". They seem to think that "since we have testimony and cross examination at trial, we don't need to worry about trial judges finding the wrong materials during their research". And that's why (A) "should be constrained by the structure of a trial" is correct. The "structure" refers to "testimony and cross examination".

Am I interpreting the passage correct?

[Adam Tyson]

I think what you are missing here, ntusss, is that author B never really talks about judges doing their own research at the trial level. Passage B is all about judges doing so at the appellate level, and takes no position on what trial judges do about independent research. Also, we cannot say what typically does happen based on either passage, but only what should happen. Both authors think the trial should be of paramount importance, whether judges do their own research or not.

[mollyquillin]

I chose B originally in this passage and now can see why A is correct, thanks to the helpful discussion above!

However, why is answer choice B incorrect? Does either passage author not want this research to come from "standard, reliable sources"? Thanks!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

For answer choice (B), Molly, the problem is that we just don't know for sure. In order for this to be correct, we'd have to be able to point to something in the passage for each author that would prove that. The author of passage (A) doesn't indicate that limitation on possible research. They indicate that the court may be able to find better sources than the parties would provide, but not that those sources are limited to any sort of standard sources.

Hope that helps!
Rachael