The passage most strongly implies that many lawyers believe which one of the following concerning decisions about whe...

Ravi on February 16, 2019

@Ceci,

Happy to help.

The question asks, "The passage most strongly implies that many
lawyers believe which one of the following concerning decisions about
whether to steal thunder?"

You asked why (C) is wrong and (D) is correct.

(C) says, "The decision should be based on careful deliberations that
anticipate both positive and negative reactions of jurors and opposing
lawyers."

The problem with (C) is that based on what's in the passage, we have
no clue about if lawyers make careful deliberations about whether or
not they should "steal thunder." For all we know, lawyers could decide
to use the stealing thunder strategy with virtually no planning
beforehand. The only thing we know that the lawyers do consider is
whether or not their opponents have knowledge about the negative
information and will bring it to light in the trial. As a result, (C)
is unsupported from the text in the passage, so we can eliminate it.

It sounds like you liked (C) because you were bringing in some of your
own, outside opinions about what lawyers need to do, but remember, the
LSAT is only testing us on information in the text. The only support
for this answer choice is contained within the passage, so that's what
we have to work with.

(D) says, "The decision should depend on how probable it is that the
opposition will try to derive an advantage from mentioning the
negative information in question."

In the passage, the author notes that lots of lawyers do believe that
stealing thunder is an effective strategy, but she first qualifies
their belief in lines 4 to 6 when she says, "there is no point in
revealing a weakness that is unknown to one's opponents or that would
not be exploited by them." From this, we can infer that many lawyers
probably believe that if their opposition isn't going to mention the
negative information they're concerned about, then they should not
worry about using the stealing thunder strategy to reveal that
information. The textual support of lines 4 to 6 provides great
support for (D), which states that the decision of whether to
implement the stealing thunder strategy should depend on how likely it
is that the opponent will bring up the negative information. Thus, (D)
is the correct answer.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!

indigobunting on July 12, 2020

D makes sense to me but can you explain why A is wrong? Doesn't it say in the passage that the success of "storming thunder" depends on whether it is possible to frame it in a more positive way?

colleen_ on July 20, 2020

I also chose D for the same reason

colleen_ on July 20, 2020

Sorry, meant A. I chose A initially for the same reason but also see why D is correct.