LNAT Distinguishing Fact and Opinion 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A passage states: 'It is a fact that capital punishment is immoral.' What is wrong with calling this a fact?
- Nothing; morality can be scientifically proven
- Morality is a value judgment, so this is an opinion regardless of how it is framed (Correct answer)
- It is a fact only if supported by religious authority
- It is a fact because most democracies have abolished it
Correct answer: Morality is a value judgment, so this is an opinion regardless of how it is framed
Moral claims are inherently evaluative and cannot be empirically verified, so framing a moral position as a 'fact' is a misclassification.
Question 2: Which of the following pairs correctly matches each statement to its type?
- 'The jury acquitted the defendant' = Opinion; 'The law is unjust' = Fact
- 'The law is unjust' = Opinion; 'The jury acquitted the defendant' = Fact (Correct answer)
- Both are facts because both describe legal events
- Both are opinions because both concern the legal system
Correct answer: 'The law is unjust' = Opinion; 'The jury acquitted the defendant' = Fact
A jury verdict is a recorded legal event (fact), while a judgment that the law is unjust is an evaluative position (opinion).
Question 3: A political science paper says: 'Democracies with proportional representation tend to have stronger civil liberties protections.' This is:
- Opinion, because civil liberties are subjective
- Fact, if the claim reflects documented research findings (Correct answer)
- Opinion, because the author is advocating for a political system
- Fact only if the author is a sitting judge
Correct answer: Fact, if the claim reflects documented research findings
A claim based on documented comparative research is a factual statement; the existence of a trend in data can be empirically verified.
Question 4: In an LNAT passage, an author uses the phrase 'needless to say' before a claim. This phrasing suggests the following claim is likely:
- A universally accepted fact
- An opinion being presented as if it were self-evident (Correct answer)
- A hypothesis that needs testing
- A legal definition
Correct answer: An opinion being presented as if it were self-evident
'Needless to say' is a rhetorical device that presupposes agreement, often used to slip opinions past the reader as though they were obvious truths.
Question 5: A judge writes in a ruling: 'In the court's view, the evidence is insufficient to establish guilt beyond reasonable doubt.' This statement is:
- A fact, because judges state facts in rulings
- An opinion of the court, explicitly framed as such (Correct answer)
- A fact, because it determines the legal outcome
- An opinion only if the judge was biased
Correct answer: An opinion of the court, explicitly framed as such
The phrase 'in the court's view' signals that this is an institutional judgment — a form of opinion — even though it has binding legal force.
Question 6: Which question is most useful when trying to determine whether a statement in an LNAT passage is fact or opinion?
- Who wrote the passage?
- Can this claim be proven true or false through evidence? (Correct answer)
- Is the passage published in an academic journal?
- Does the statement use formal language?
Correct answer: Can this claim be proven true or false through evidence?
The core test of a factual claim is whether it is empirically verifiable or falsifiable; the source, publication venue, or language style are irrelevant to this classification.
Question 7: A student writes: 'The US has more lawyers per capita than any other nation, proving that its legal system is overly litigious.' The word 'proving' here:
- Correctly links a fact to a logical conclusion
- Incorrectly implies that a factual statistic establishes a value-laden opinion (Correct answer)
- Indicates both clauses are factual
- Makes the entire sentence an opinion
Correct answer: Incorrectly implies that a factual statistic establishes a value-laden opinion
'Overly litigious' is a value judgment that a statistic alone cannot prove; the student conflates factual data with an evaluative interpretation.
LNAT Distinguishing Fact and Opinion 4
A passage states: 'It is a fact that capital punishment is immoral.' What is wrong with calling this a fact?