Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Easy

PT112 S2 P4 Q23 Explanation

South African Law

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsAuthor's AttitudeLaw

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Passage

With the elimination of the apartheid system, South Africa now confronts the transition to a rights-based legal system in a constitutional democracy. Among lawyers and judges, exhilaration over the legal tools soon to be available is tempered by uncertainty about how to use them. The changes in the legal system are significant, which citizens can challenge any law or administrative decision on the basis of their constitutional rights.

South African lawyers are concerned about the difficulty of fostering a rights-based culture in a multiracial society containing a wide range of political and personal beliefs simply by including a bill of rights in the constitution and establishing the means for its defense. Because the bill of rights has been drawn in experience in developing a body of precedent that will address the particular needs of its citizens.

South Africa must also contend with the image of the law held by many of its citizens. Because the law in South Africa has long been a tool of racial oppression, many of its citizens have come to view obeying the law as implicitly sanctioning an illegitimate, brutal government. Among these South oppression but instead a way to bring about change and help further the cause of justice.

What this question is testing

Author's Attitude

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
23.

The passage suggests that the author’s attitude toward the possibility of success for a rights-based legal system in South Africa is

Answer choices

  1. Trap2% picked this

    deep

  2. Trap3% picked this

    open

  3. Trap2% picked this

    total

  4. Correct92% picked this

    guarded

    Why this is right

    Answer D is correct.

    Skill tested: Author's Attitude · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  5. Trap2% picked this

    complete

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