PrepTest 136, Section 1, Question 9
Passage A In this appeal of his criminal(491 more words not shown)
Passage A(262 more words not shown)
Passage B(237 more words not shown)
The authors would be most(4 more words not shown)
- Awhether uniformity in(7 more words not shown)
- Bthe likelihood that(13 more words not shown)
- Cwhether fingerprint identification(8 more words not shown)
- Dthe relative merits(9 more words not shown)
- Ewhether different agencies(14 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
A accepts testimony that examiners make mistakes extremely rarely. B questions the testing behind that confidence and ends with a more rigorous test that produced many errors. That's a real point of disagreement about reliability.
What we’re looking for
Check both sides of any proposed dispute. Mentioning a topic in only one account—or finding that both acknowledge the same fact—won't establish disagreement.
Working the answers
- A
A points to uniform standards developed through training as a reason for confidence. B criticizes the lack of objective standards. Neither position suggests opposition to uniform training; this isn't their dispute.
- BCorrect
A's ending accepts an “exceedingly low error rate.” B argues that the rate is poorly studied, criticizes the reassuring tests, and reports a much worse result under stricter testing. They differ about how much confidence we should have that an examiner's identification is correct. B needn't supply a universal error percentage to challenge A's confidence.
- C
A acknowledges that fingerprint identification isn't scientific law. B doesn't argue over whether it should receive that status, so we lack opposing positions on this question.
- D
B mentions point counting and a holistic method, but A doesn't compare their relative merits. There is no two-sided dispute about which is better.
- E
Both acknowledge variation among agencies or local practices. A expressly concedes different degrees of correlation; B emphasizes varying requirements. They disagree about the significance of that variation, not whether it exists.
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