PrepTest 130, Section 1, Question 4
At mock trials in which jury instructions were(58 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- ATechnical language tends(7 more words not shown)
- BA person's influence(7 more words not shown)
- CNonverbal behavior is(6 more words not shown)
- DReal trials are(8 more words not shown)
- EThe way in(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The jurors heard the same case, but the instructions differed. With technical legal jargon, verdicts tended to line up with the judge's opinions. With clear language, jurors were more likely to disagree. That makes the wording of the instructions look consequential.
The nonverbal behavior is interesting too. If the legal language is hard to follow, jurors might start looking to the judge's expression or tone for guidance. But we shouldn't fill in an entire explanation the passage never gives. A judge still has facial expressions and a tone of voice when speaking plainly. We aren't told that the clear-language group failed to notice them.
What we’re looking for
These are facts from mock trials, with no further conclusion offered for us to criticize. The question asks what the example best illustrates. I'd stay with the broad lesson the comparison supports: how a judge instructs a jury can affect its verdict. We don't need a claim about what happens in every trial or a complete explanation of the psychological mechanism.
Working the answers
- A
Precision isn't what this comparison measured. Technical instructions might be more precise or less precise; the passage tells us how verdicts differed, not how exactly the language expressed the law.
- B
We haven't compared judges with different perceived status. Connecting big words with higher status would add a premise of our own, and nothing establishes a proportional relationship between status and influence. The observed difference concerns the language of the instructions.
- C
The passage gives us reason to think nonverbal behavior can convey a judge's opinions, not that it is ineffective. Jurors noticed expressions, movements, and tone in the setting where their verdicts tended to match those opinions. C points away from that evidence.
- D
No real trials are described or compared with the mock trials. We therefore can't use this example to rank the two settings for experimentation.
- ECorrect
Changing the way instructions were given went along with a difference in the jury's verdicts. That illustrates that a judge's manner of instruction can influence the result. The modest word “can” matters: the example supports possible influence, not a guarantee that judges can obtain any verdict they want.
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