Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT141 S3 P4 Q21 Explanation

Regulating Voluntary Risk

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

TopicsMain PointLaw

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Passage

It is generally believed that while in some cases government should intervene to protect people from risk—by imposing air safety standards, for example—in other cases, such as mountain climbing, the onus should be on the individual to protect himself or herself. In the eyes of the public at large, the demarcation between antecedent judgment of some other kind. They are thus of little utility in guiding policy decisions.

First, it is not easy to determine when a risk is voluntarily incurred. Although voluntariness may be entirely absent in the case of an unforeseeable collision with an asteroid, with most environmental, occupational, and other social risks, it is not an all-or-nothing matter, but rather one of degree. Risks incurred by airline part of a complex interaction, not the decision to fly, but the accident when it occurs.

Second, people often characterize risks as "voluntary” when they do not approve of the purpose for which people run the risks. It is unlikely that people would want to pour enormous taxpayer resources into lowering the risks associated with skydiving, even if the ratio of dollars spent to lives saved were quite policy should be guided by a better understanding of the factors that underlie judgments about voluntariness.

In general, the government should attempt to save as many lives as it can, subject to the limited public and private resources devoted to risk reduction. Departures from this principle should be justified not by invoking the allegedly voluntary or involuntary nature of a particular considerations for which notions of voluntariness serve as proxies.

What this question is testing

Main Point

Your task

Capture the passage's overall primary point — the claim everything else supports.

Common trap

Answers that are true but too narrow (a single paragraph) or too broad (beyond the passage's scope).

Winning move

Summarize the whole passage in one sentence first, then match it to a choice.

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

The question
21.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of

Answer choices

  1. Wrong Emphasis: too narrow4% picked this

    In general, whether people characterize a risk as voluntary or involuntary depends on whether they approve of the purpose for

    This is a premise for the Conclusion that notions of voluntary vs. involuntary are of little utility in guiding policy decisions. The Conclusion is our main point.

  2. Correct68% picked this

    Decisions about government intervention to protect people from risks should be based primarily on how many lives can be saved rather than on

    Why this is right

    This looks like a great blend of the final sentence of the 1st paragraph and the 1st sentence of the final paragraph. "Judgments about whether a risk is voluntary are of little utility in guiding policy decisions" and "In general, the government should attempt to save as many lives as it can; departures from this rule should not be justified by invoking notions of whether a particular risk was voluntary or involuntary".

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

  3. Wrong Advice3% picked this

    Though laypeople may object, experts should be the ones to determine whether the risk incurred in a particular

    The author does want experts to pretty much ignore how laypeople think about risk, but the author thinks the experts should be basing their decisions on "saving as many lives as they can, subject to their limited resources" and not by worrying whether a risk was voluntary or involuntary.

  4. Opposite, if Anything23% picked this

    Public-policy decisions related to the protection of society against risk are difficult to make because of the difficulty of distinguishing risks incurred

    This answer makes it sound like the author accepts that we should be trying to assess whether a risk is voluntary or involuntary, but she thinks that's a difficult task. Instead, her thesis is saying that we shouldn't worry at all about figuring out whether a risk is voluntary or involuntary; that distinction is of little utility in guiding policy decisions.

  5. Wrong Emphasis: too narrow2% picked this

    People who make judgments about the voluntary or involuntary character of a risk are usually unaware of the complicated motivations that

    This is a premise for the Conclusion that "notions of voluntary vs. involuntary are of little utility in guiding policy decisions". The premise wouldn't be the main point; the conclusion would be.

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