Highlight the author’s conclusions:
Passage A:
not all actual situations are generated in accordance with the principles of justice in acquisition and justice in transfer.
Passage B:
The current owners lack a well-founded right to the land
***
Passage A goes on and on giving background on these principles of property justice. The only statement the author actually gives support for follows “However”. You can tell that’s a conclusion because the example right after supports it.
It does seem like the author might agree with the statement at the end that “ownership of property must then be brought into conformity”, but they definitely don’t give any support for it.
Passage B’s opening paragraph is all background. The second paragraph has a lot of opinion in it, but the only statement that gets supported is “The current owners…” You can stick a ‘therefore’ between that sentence and the one before it and it makes good sense. That’s a good quick test of which statement is a conclusion.
Map the wording of the answers to the reference in the prompt, or to the author’s conclusions:
22. Which one of the following most accurately describes the main purpose for which passage A was written and the main purpose for which passage b was written?
Map the answers to the authors’ conclusions.
(A) Passage A: to propose a solution…
Stop. The conclusion only says real life doesn’t follow principles of justice. No solution was proposed.
(B) Passage A: …general outline of a branch of moral theory
Passage B: …moral analysis of a real case
Passage A’s author doesn’t make much of a controversial argument, they really just “outline” these principles. Property is the “branch” and justice is the “moral theory”.
Passage B’s author, on the other hand, passed down some judgment about land rights in North America in their conclusion. Is that an “analysis of a real case”? You betcha. This is a keeper.
(C) Passage B: …that exemplifies a moral ideal
Not at all. Passage B is all about a morally fucked situation, not an “ideal” one. I don’t love the Passage A part either, but that was close enough to survive being eliminated right away.
(D) Passage A: to argue for a particular moral ideal
Not even close. A’s author didn’t really “argue” at all, and if they did it was only to say real life isn’t like principles of justice.
(E) Passage A: to advocate the use of…
Stop. No way there’s was any advocating going on in there.
(B) is the correct answer.
23. Both passages explicitly mention which one of the following?
Map the answers to the author’s conclusions. A lot of people will just search for the reference in each answer choice, and that’s okay if you’re really efficient and don’t waste time re-reading too much. But watch how only the right answer will map to both conclusions.
(A) transfer of property…
Boom. This is mentioned not just in each passage, but in each conclusion, isn’t it? No fuss, no muss. You could feel pretty good just picking this and moving on.
(B) …recovery of property
Ooh, a little too specific. “Recovery” is one kind of transfer, but neither passage got into that “explicitly”.
(C) …in a wholly just world.
Only Passage A talked about the issue globally like that, B was just about what went down in North America.
(D) practicability of rectification…
Nope. Passage A kept it totally hypothetical, only B talked about what was practical.
(E) …as part of an invasion
The “invasion” thing only gets mentioned in Passage B.
(A) is the correct answer.
24. Which one of the following is true of the relationship between passage A and the second paragraph of passage B?
Map the answers to the author’s conclusions. Since all of Passage B’s argument is in that second paragraph, mapping to conclusions will work perfectly.
(A) …passage B attempts to develop a broader version…
Passage B covered one specific case, so it’s definitely not “broader” than A.
(B) …bolster the argument in passage A.
Is there an argument in A that needs bolstering? It was pretty dry and non-controversial. This might have worked the other way around, since B kinda uses the same reasoning that A explains in detail. But this gets it backwards.
(C) …structurally parallel…
That’s totally wrong. “Structurally parallel” would mean the two passages use the same kind of support to get to the same kind of conclusion. That’s not even close to what happened with this A and B, since one explains general principles and the other makes an argument about a specific case.
(D) Passage A presents a theory that tends to support…passage B.
Did passage A present a theory? You know it. It starts by explaining “a theory of justice regarding property”. Would that theory support B’s argument that “the current owners lack a well-founded right to the land”. Positively yes.
(E) …attempts to undermine…
Nope, these two authors seem to agree about property justice.
(D) is the correct answer.
25. Based on what can be inferred from their titles, the relationship between which one of the following pairs of documents is most analogous to the relationship between passage a and passage b?
Map the answers to the author’s conclusions.
(A) …A Can’t-Lose System for…
There’s no system, or method, or anything like that in passage A. This sounds like a cheesy get rich quick scheme.
(B) …unfit to serve
That’s a much stronger take, and much more negative, than any part of passage A explains.
(C) …A Guide…
Like (A), there’s no guidance of any kind in passage A. Just a totally abstract chunk of legalistic explication.
(D) Notable Failures…
One more time. Passage A isn’t that negative. The author says actual situations don’t follow principles of justice, but “failure” is way, way too strong.
(E) Fundamentals of…
The Repairs Needed…
Almost couldn’t write it better myself. Passage A gives an overview of a topic, passage B makes an argument about a specific case related to the topic. And “repairs” maps beautifully to “rectification”.
(E) is the correct answer.
26. The author of passage A would be most likely to characterize the purpose of the Indian Nonintercourse Act as which one of the following?
Map the answers to the reference in the prompt. We know the authors basically agree, so map the answers to the reference in B and expect the right answer to use wording that appears in A. The “purpose of the Indian Nonintercourse Act”, according to the first paragraph of passage B, is “to guarantee security to Native Americans against fraudulent acquisitions…”
(A) legitimization…
Maybe that sounded okay to you, but that’s not really close enough to “guarantee security” to be the right answer. If you start thinking about, it’s backwards anyway, since the authors want to fix illegitimate property holdings.
(B) clarification of existing laws…
Again, this doesn’t map to the reference in the passage well at all. And the author of A didn’t get into “existing laws” at all, just theory.
(C) assurance of conformity to the principle of justice in acquisition.
I don’t love any of the wording, but you know this is wrong since the Act is only about “transfer” of property, and we know the author of A thinks that’s a separate thing from “acquisition”
(D) prevention of violations of the principle of justice in transfer.
Boom. There should be no doubt that “prevention of violations” maps best to “guarantee security”.
(E) …rectification.
Careful. That would mean the rightful owners get back property that was taken in the past, but as far as we know the Act only protects transfers going forward.
(D) is the correct answer.
27. Which one of the following most accurately describes the difference in approach taken by passage A as compared to passage B?
Map the answers to the authors’ conclusions.
(A) …a general view without providing details, while passage B sketches an argument…
This all maps pretty nicely to each author’s conclusion. I don’t love the “does not necessarily endorse” bit, but double check and see the author says Native Americans would get the land back “ideally”, but “this may be impractical”. That could be non-endorsement language, so I’m totally cool with this answer.
(B) Passage A argues for the superiority of one view over competing views…
Stop. No it doesn’t. There’s only one view in there.
(C) Passage A invokes…to support a policy recommendation…
Passage A most certainly does NOT make a policy recommendation.
(D) …passage B provides…no argument.
I don’t like the passage A part either, but it’s pretty generic so I get if you weren’t sure there. I expect us all to agree that passage B makes an argument though.
(E) …passage B attempts to undermine a view.
Again I don’t really like the passage A part but I could see that being tougher to eliminate. Passage definitely doesn’t “undermine” a view though. That would have to include the author disagreeing with someone else’s view.
(A) is the correct answer.
Elliot Hirsen / LSAT coach 
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