Highlight the author’s conclusions:
p1:
judgments about whether a risk is “involuntary”…are thus of little utility in guiding policy decisions
p3:
regulatory policy should be guided by a better understanding of the factors that underlie judgments about voluntariness
p4:
the government should attempt to save as many lives as it can
***
p1 gives background on the difference between voluntary and involuntary risk, then ends with a conclusion. When it’s easy enough, I recommend highlighting what a pronoun in a conclusion refers to. In this case, “they” in the last sentence refers to the “judgments” in the previous sentence.
p2 and p3 each bring in an intermediate conclusion in the first sentence. They both support for the conclusion in the first paragraph, but they also get support from the rest of the paragraph.
p3 ends up on another conclusion that sounds a lot like the one in the first paragraph. Not only are voluntary vs. involuntary “judgments” not useful for making policy, we also need “a better understanding” of these judgments. This is so interesting I might fall out of my chair.
p4 starts with a conclusion that sounds like the main point. I didn’t highlight the whole sentence since after the comma seems to be just a small qualification that’s kinda obvious. It’s technically part of the conclusion, but I prefer not highlighting more than I need to if it’s not going to mess up picking answers.
Map the wording of the answers to the reference in the prompt, or to the author’s conclusions:
21. Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?
Map the answers to the author’s conclusions.
(A) …whether people characterize a risk as voluntary…
This is an accurate detail, but how people decide which risks are voluntary isn’t actually in any of the author’s conclusions.
(B) Decisions about government intervention…should be based primarily on how many lives can be saved…
This maps perfectly to the author’s conclusions. I’d be happy picking this clear winner without reading the rest of the list.
(C) …experts should be the ones to determine…
This is maybe implied, but a possible implication is not even close to a “main point”.
(D) Public-policy decisions…are difficult to make…
This is slightly mischaracterizing what the author said, but there’s no reason to think that hard about it as long as you agree this doesn’t map to any of the author’s conclusions.
(E) People who make judgments…are usually unaware…
What anyone is aware or “unaware” of doesn’t come up in any of the conclusions.
(B) is the correct answer.
22. The passage indicates which one of the following is usually a significant factor in laypeople’s willingness to support public funding for specific risk-reduction measures?
Map the answers to the reference in the prompt. If you search “laypeople”, you find the line that says the “care a great deal about whether a risk is undertaken voluntarily”. The whole third paragraph also explains when “people” are likely support funding for risk reduction. It doesn’t mention any other factor besides voluntary vs. involuntary.
(C) …voluntary or involuntary
Thankfully, this is the only answer that even uses the right wording. And of course it doesn’t bring in anything else that doesn’t map to the reference.
(A) …the ratio of dollars spent to lives saved
(B) …whether the government should intervene
(D) …whether the risk puts a great number of lives at stake
(E) …the total resources available for risk reduction
All of these factors are mentioned are alluded to, but none map to the reference in the prompt.
(C) is the correct answer.
23. According to the passage, which one of the following do laypeople conisder to involve risk that is not freely assumed?
Map the answers to the reference in the prompt. They changed “involuntary” to “not freely assumed” in the prompt, but it should be clear that’s what this question is asking for. Search “involuntary” and we find the line that says, “Risks incurred by airline passengers are typically thought to be involuntary”.
(D) traveling in airplanes
Boom.
(A) traveling in outer space
That never comes up in the passage.
(B) …skydiving
The third paragraph mentions skydiving, but suggests its voluntary since people probably wouldn’t pay to reduce skydiving risk.
(C) serving as a firefighter
This one is maybe a little tricky, but the author uses “the decision to become a firefighter” as an example of a “voluntary” risk that people are still cool with spending money on safety for.
(E) climbing mountains
The first paragraph used climbing as an example of a voluntary risk people generally don’t want the government protecting people from.
(D) is the correct answer.
24. It can be inferred from the passage that the author would be most likely to agree with which one of the following statements?
Map the answers to the author’s conclusions.
(A) …that are dangerous and serve no socially useful purpose.
Please don’t be a sucker. In the outside world, this is a totally reasonable statement. But that’s not what the LSAT is ever asking you for. The wording in this one doesn’t map to any of the author’s conclusions.
(B) …deemed by policy experts to be irrelevant…
This is super wordy, but it maps really nicely to the author’s conclusions. Policy experts are meant to focus on saving lives, not voluntariness. You shouldn’t really need to find the exact reference, but the first paragraph does say “Policy experts tend to focus on aggregate live at stake”.
(C) …higher for plane crashes than for any other kind of risk…
There’s absolutely no comparison between different kinds of risks of flying anywhere in the passage.
(D) …if people are not subject to that risk unless…
The author’s argument included saying “it is not easy to determine” whether a risk is voluntary. They definitely didn’t lay out a specific definition like this.
(E) The main category of risk…
There’s no comparison between categories of involuntary risk in the passage.
(B) is the correct answer.
25. The author’s use of the phrase “no special magic” is most likely meant primarily to convey that notions like “voluntary” and “involuntary”
Map the answers to the reference in the prompt. The reference is direct support for the conclusion that follows, that policy needs “a better understanding” of “voluntariness”.
(A) do not exhaustively characterize the risks…
The author probably agrees, but that’s not what the question is asking. This statement doesn’t map to the reference in the passage at all.
(B) …to intentionally conceal…
So voluntariness is part of a government cover-up? I think we’d remember if the author shared a conspiracy theory haha.
(C) have no meaning…
This is way stronger than how the author said it. If you picked this, I really need you to get away from picking what sounds good to you, and be a LOT more careful about checking the exact wording.
(D) …that inform people’s understanding of the consequences of risk
The passage never mentions “consequences” of risk.
(E) provide a flawed mechanism for making public policy decisions…
This aligns pretty much perfectly with the author saying we need a “better understanding” of voluntariness.
(E) is the correct answer.
26. The passage most strongly supports the inference that the author believes which one of the following?
Map the answers to the author’s conclusions.
(A) Whenever…, the government should intervene…
Too strong. Make sure you catch that “whenever” means every single time, with no exceptions ever. The conclusion says “save as many lives” as you can, but that’s definitely not the same thing.
(B) …voluntary to a greater degree than others…
This maps nicely to the overall argument about the tricky distinction between voluntary and involuntary. If you needed it, there’s also a line in the second paragraph that says risks are “not an all-or-nothing matter, but rather one of degree”, and it specifically includes “environmental” risks in there.
(C) …more likely than laypeople to form an accurate judgment about the voluntariness…
Again, the whole point was that it’s not easy to make “an accurate judgment”, so this should have sounded pretty fishy. And there’s no comparison made between the accuracy of laypeople’s and policy experts’ judgments.
(D) The government should increase…
The only recommendation the author makes is the last conclusion about saving lives. Don’t add in your own assumption that the author is also recommending spending more. The passage doesn’t actually say that.
(E) Government policies…are not justified unless…
The author never comes close to giving a rule about when government policies are justified.
(B) is the correct answer.
27. Which one of the following most accurately describes the author’s attitude in the passage?
Map the answers to the author’s conclusions.
(A) chagrin at the rampant misunderstanding…
Stop. There’s no “chagrin”, which is sadness, and just for good measure the person who wrote this threw in the ridiculously too strong word “rampant” to make sure you’d know not to pick this one.
(B) …would lead to excessive government regulation
The author never says anything about too much regulation.
(C) skepticism about the reliability of laypeople’s intuitions…
This is what each of the first three paragraphs is about, so that’s a big fat green flag. Laypeople focus on voluntariness, but the author wants to ditch that and focus on saving lives instead.
(D) conviction that the sole criterion…
Stop. The author doesn’t say there’s only one factor that matters.
(E) …distorted by subtle biases
The author supports “policy experts’ analysis”, it’s the rest of us “laypeople” whom the author says gets it wrong and might have “subtle biases”.
(C) is the correct answer.
Elliot Hirsen / LSAT coach 
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