PrepTest 135, Section 3, Question 14
The following passages are adapted from articles recently(479 more words not shown)
Passage A(256 more words not shown)
Passage B(216 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- Awhy triangular transactions(2 more words not shown)
- Bthe role of(10 more words not shown)
- Chow blackmail has(7 more words not shown)
- Dthe history of(5 more words not shown)
- Ewhy no good(7 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Our two main points differ, but they concern the same subject. A explains why blackmail should be criminal under Canadian and U.S. common law. B explains why Roman law didn't need a separate blackmail category.
What we’re looking for
We're being asked for the shared topic, not an identical conclusion. Look for the legal treatment of blackmail, broad enough to include both approaches.
Working the answers
- A
The triangle is A's proposed explanation of blackmail's wrongness. B doesn't organize its account around triangular transactions, and A doesn't claim that every transaction involving three parties is illegal. This isn't their shared topic.
- B
Free speech helps explain the difference between the systems. But both authors use that issue to discuss blackmail; neither is giving a general account of free speech's role throughout a legal system.
- CCorrect
A addresses blackmail in Canadian and U.S. common law; B addresses it in Roman law. How each system handles blackmail is the common topic even though one needs a special category and the other does not.
- D
Ancient Roman law makes history relevant to the setting, but we aren't tracing how the concept of blackmail developed over time. We're comparing legal approaches, not following a historical sequence.
- E
This picks up A's opening problem and leaves out B. It also stops too early in A: the author goes on to propose a coherent explanation. A problem raised in one introduction isn't necessarily the subject shared by both accounts.
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