The Fairness of the Judicial Process Depends on the Objective GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

The fairness of the judicial process depends on the objective presentation of facts to an impartial jury made up of one’s peers. Present the facts, and you have a fair trial. However, fact-finding, especially for interpersonal disagreements, is not so straightforward and is often contaminated by variables that reach beyond the legal domain.

A trial is an attempt to transport jurors to the time and place of the disputed event, to recreate the disputed event, or at least to explain that event with maximum accuracy. A trial falls short of this goal, however, because it presents selected witnesses who recite selected portions of their respective memories concerning selected observations of the disputed event. These multiple selections are referred to as the abstraction process. Limitations in both perception and memory are responsible for the fact that the remembered event contains only a fraction of the detail present during the actual event, and the delay between observation and recitation causes witnesses’ memories to lose even more of the original perceptions. During the course of a trial, a witness’s recitation of the now-abstracted events may reflect selected disclosure based on his or her attitudes and motivations surrounding that testimony. Furthermore, the incidents reported are dependent on the lines of inquiry established by the attorneys involved. Accordingly, the recited data are a fraction of the remembered data, which are a fraction of the observed data, which are a fraction of the total data for the event.

After the event that led to the trial has been abstracted by participants in the trial, jurors are expected to resolve factual issues. Some of the jurors’ conclusions are based on facts that were directly recited; others are found inferentially. Here another abstraction process takes place. Discussions during deliberations add to the collective pool of recalled evidentiary perceptions; nonetheless, the jurors’ abstraction processes further reduce the number of characteristics traceable to the original event.

Complication can arise from false abstractions at each stage. Studies have shown that witnesses recall having perceived incidents that are known to be absent from a given event. Conversely, jurors can remember hearing evidence that is unaccounted for in court transcripts. Explanations for these phenomena range from bias through prior conditioning or observer expectation to faulty reportage of the event based on the constraints of language. Aberrant abstractions in perception or recollection may not be conscious or deliberate, but reliability is nevertheless diluted.

Finally, deliberate untruthfulness has always been recognized as a risk of testimonial evidence. Such intentionally false abstractions, however, are only a small part of the inaccuracies produced by the abstraction process.

‘The fairness of the judicial process depends on the objective’ is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Questions and Solutions

1. In this passage, the author’s main purpose is to

(A) discuss a process that jeopardizes the fairness of jury trials
(B) analyze a methodology that safeguards the individual’s right to fair trial
(C) explain why jurors should view eyewitness testimony with skepticism
(D) defend the trial-by-jury process, despite its limitations
(E) point out the unavoidable abuses that have crept into the judicial process

2. The author considers all of the following obstacles to a fair trial EXCEPT

(A) selective perceptions
(B) faulty communications
(C) partial disclosures
(D) intentional falsifications
(E) too few abstractions

3. The author would most likely agree that the abstraction process occurs in the judicial process primarily because

(A) some jurors’ conclusions are based on facts rather than on inferences
(B) remembered events depend upon an individual’s emotions
(C) human beings are the sources and users of data presented in trials
(D) it is difficult to distinguish between deliberate falsehood and unintentional selected disclosure
(E) witnesses often dispute one another’s recollections of events

4. It can be inferred that the author believes the ability of juries to resolve factual issues is

(A) limited by any individual juror’s tendency to draw inferences from the facts presented during the trial
(B) overwhelmed by the collective pool of recalled evidentiary perceptions
(C) unaffected by the process of trying to reenact the event leading to the trial
(D) dependent upon the jury’s ability to understand the influence of the abstraction process on testimony
(E) subject to the same limitations of perception and memory that affect witnesses

5. With which one of the following statements would the author most likely agree?

(A) If deliberate untruthfulness were all the courts had to contend with, jury trials would be fairer than they are today.
(B) Lack of moral standards is more of an impediment to a fair trial than human frailty.
(C) The bulk of the inaccuracies produced by the abstraction process are innocently presented and rarely have any serious consequences.
(D) If the inaccuracies resulting from the abstraction process persist, the present trial-by-jury system is likely to become a thing of the past.
(E) Once intentional falsification of evidence is eliminated from trials, ensuring an accurate presentation of facts will easily follow.

6. The author’s attitude toward the abstraction process that occurs when witnesses testify in a trial can best be described as

(A) confident that witnesses can be conditioned to overcome many limitations of memory
(B) concerned that it may undermine witnesses ability to accurately describe the original event in dispute
(C) critical of witnesses’ motivations when delivering testimony
(D) indifferent toward the effect the abstraction process has on testimony
(E) suspicious of witnesses’ efforts to describe remembered events truthfully

7. Given the information in the passage, the actual event that is disputed in a jury trial is most like

(A) a group of job applicants that is narrowed down to a few finalists
(B) a subject that is photographed from varied and increasingly distant vantage points
(C) scraps of fabric that are sewn together to make an intricately designed quilt
(D) a puzzle that is unsystematically assembled through trial and error
(E) a lie that is compounded by additional lies in order to be maintained

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