Rearrange the given parts of the sentence in correct order to form a meaningful statement about judicial dissent: A dissent in a court P the intelligence of a future day Q to the brooding spirit of law, to R of last resort is an appeal.

Introduction / Context:
Rearrangement questions test a learner's ability to recognise logical sentence structure and meaningful flow of ideas. The given sentence parts form a famous quotation about judicial dissent. The challenge is to identify the correct sequence of the fragments P, Q, and R that, when combined with the main clause, yield a complete, coherent sentence.

Given Data / Assumptions:

Main clause beginning: "A dissent in a court"

P: "the intelligence of a future day"

Q: "to the brooding spirit of law, to"

R: "of last resort is an appeal"

The complete sentence should read as a meaningful philosophical statement about dissent in a court of last resort.

Concept / Approach:

Sentence rearrangement often follows familiar grammatical patterns.

The phrase "court of last resort" is a standard legal expression referring to the highest court.

After forming "court of last resort", the sentence should continue with a verb phrase such as "is an appeal".

The prepositional phrase "to the brooding spirit of law, to the intelligence of a future day" logically describes the target of that appeal.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Start from the main subject phrase "A dissent in a court". We need to decide which fragment can logically follow "court". Step 2: Fragment R begins with "of last resort is an appeal". Attaching it gives "A dissent in a court of last resort is an appeal", which is grammatically complete and meaningful. Step 3: Now, we need to add the remaining parts Q and P to complete the thought. Fragment Q is "to the brooding spirit of law, to". This looks like the start of a prepositional phrase that tells us where the appeal is directed. Step 4: Fragment P, "the intelligence of a future day", naturally completes the phrase that begins with "to". So the full sequence after R becomes "to the brooding spirit of law, to the intelligence of a future day". Step 5: Putting everything together, we get: "A dissent in a court of last resort is an appeal to the brooding spirit of law, to the intelligence of a future day." Step 6: This order corresponds to R followed by Q followed by P, which is represented by option b (RQP).

Verification / Alternative check:
Check grammatical correctness: "court of last resort" is a known phrase, and "is an appeal to the brooding spirit of law, to the intelligence of a future day" is a smooth, logically connected continuation. Any other ordering, such as P first or Q first, breaks the natural collocation "court of last resort" or leaves prepositions without suitable objects. Therefore, RQP is the only sequence that results in a standard, quotable sentence.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option a (QRP) would produce "A dissent in a court to the brooding spirit of law, to of last resort is an appeal the intelligence of a future day", which is clearly ungrammatical. Option c (PRQ) starts with "A dissent in a court the intelligence of a future day", which does not link properly to "court" and disrupts the phrase "court of last resort". Option d (PQR) creates a similar breakdown where the object of "to" and the phrase "of last resort" are misplaced, leading to awkward, incorrect structure.

Common Pitfalls:
Students often try to start with the fragment that sounds the most philosophical, such as "the intelligence of a future day", without checking basic grammatical links. Another pitfall is ignoring familiar collocations like "court of last resort", which are strong clues for correct ordering. To avoid mistakes, learners should first look for fixed phrases and meaningful subject verb combinations, then attach remaining parts as modifiers.

Final Answer:
The correct answer is: RQP.