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Answer Key
1. A
2. C
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1. Which of the following forms of noise would be the easiest to manage as a listener?
A) A cell phone rings loudly.
B) You remember a fight you had two days ago.
C) You disagree with the speaker’s political views.
D) You experience a chronic pain in your knee.
2. Which of the following actions by a speaker demonstrates a violation of ethical
speaking?
A) citing outside sources in your speech
B) giving an impromptu speech
C) focusing on only one group’s perspective
D) not sharing information that could be harmful
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3. Which of the following character traits are you trying to cultivate when expressing your
concern for the audience’s well-being as individuals?
A) goodwill
B) practical wisdom
C) expertise
D) response-ability
4. Which of the following is a technique of observing and responding to a speaker’s verbal
and nonverbal messages with the goal of mutual understanding?
A) active listening
B) defensive listening
C) metacognition
D) pretend listening
5. A person giving a speech on the importance of childhood vaccinations introduces herself
as a pediatrician. Which of the following ethical concepts is she trying to cultivate?
A) practical wisdom
B) understanding
C) expertise
D) goodwill
6. If a motivational speaker begins a speech by stating he cares about the audience’s
well-being, which of the following ethical concepts is he trying to cultivate?
A) practical wisdom
B) understanding
C) expertise
D) goodwill
7. The proper meaning superstition shifts the burden of misunderstanding to
A) internal noise.
B) cultural differences.
C) the speaker.
D) the listener.
8. Which of the following statements best describes the proper meaning superstition?
A) Every word spoken has its own meaning that controls its use.
B) Every person has a set of symbols that he or she must reflect to others.
C) Every speaker has a desire to call for and respond to an audience.
D) Every listener has the potential to accept or interrupt a message.
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9. Makayla is an expert on net neutrality and has given a number of speeches on this topic.
When she is asked to speak off the cuff at a conference, she agrees. In her speech, she jumps
from topic to topic, and the audience has a difficult time understanding her. Which rule of
speaking should Makayla have spent more time on?
A) Demonstrate respect.
B) Do no harm.
C) Be prepared.
D) Know your stuff.
10. A friend says, “Studies have shown that workers are not effective all eight hours of the
workday. We should stop wasting employers’ money and employees’ time. It’s time to make a
change.” Which of the following is an example of paraphrasing?
A) “I disagree with what you say.”
B) “I haven’t seen any studies on this. Who conducted the studies?”
C) “If I understand you correctly, you are advocating for a shorter work day.”
D) “I am just as effective at the end of the day as I am at the start of the day.”
11. Communication is best described as the coordination of behaviors through
A) listening.
B) speaking.
C) gestures.
D) language.
12. To prepare to adapt to any audience as a speaker, it is most helpful to consider your life
as a A) listener.
B) friend.
C) student.
D) employee.
13. You are a native English speaker from the United States. While studying abroad in Italy,
you give a speech in Italian to a class of native Italian speakers. After the speech, your peers
note they could not identify the main points of your speech. Based on this information, what is
the most likely reason they had trouble understanding you?
A) external noise
B) cultural differences
C) pretend listening
D) selective exposure
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14. James is listening to a speaker who is on the opposite side of a political issue. Early in
the speech, James begins listening less attentively because he is confident he knows what the
speaker is going to say and he “knows” the speaker is wrong. This behavior best exemplifies
A) external noise.
B) cultural differences.
C) defensive listening.
D) selective exposure.
15. According to Diane Davis, our self-identities are fundamentally based on our
A) treatment of others.
B) perceived obligations to society.
C) responses to the calls of others.
D) remedies for misunderstandings.
16. During which of the following steps of active listening is feedback provided to the
speaker?
A) receiving and attending
B) understanding
C) responding, paraphrasing, and clarifying
D) recalling and remembering
17. Which of the following steps of the active listening process involves metacognition?
A) understanding
B) receiving and attending
C) responding, paraphrasing, and clarifying
D) recalling and remembering
18. How can you show the audience you have expertise in a particular area?
A) Tell them you care about audience members as people.
B) Share a story about a time you used common sense.
C) Explore the values you share with the audience.
D) Cite reputable, peer-reviewed resources to support your topic.
19. Which of the following concerns the discernment of right and wrong or good and evil?
A) judgment
B) sincerity
C) ethics
D) common sense
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20. Anything in the environment that distracts you as a listener from attending to a message
is called
A) external noise.
B) internal noise.
C) selective listening.
D) pretend listening.
21. A student is unable to focus in class because a lawn mower is making noise outside. This
student is distracted by
A) external noise.
B) internal noise.
C) selective listening.
D) defensive listening.
22. When giving a presentation at work, Logan notices that one of his colleagues, Brayden,
has raised his eyebrow and is looking around at others in the room. Logan pauses and asks
Brayden if he has any questions about what’s been discussed so far. Brayden’s facial expression
and behavior in this scenario are examples of
A) feedback.
B) pretend listening.
C) internal noise.
D) selective perception.
23. For words to be considered speech or speaking, a speaker must
A) assume a listener.
B) vocalize an utterance.
C) adhere to ethical guidelines.
D) apply meaning to a message.
24. Hearing is a
A) physical event.
B) conscious process.
C) series of verbal cues.
D) call for a response.
25. According to I. A. Richards, rhetoric should be the study of
A) ethical speaking.
B) persuasion.
C) literature.
D) misunderstanding.
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26. Dylan is unable to focus during class because he is thinking about a fight he had with a
friend. Dylan is distracted by
A) external noise.
B) internal noise.
C) selective listening.
D) defensive listening.
27. Any thoughts or feelings that occur within you that distract you from attending to a
message are called
A) external noise.
B) internal noise.
C) selective listening.
D) pretend listening.
28. Which of the following is an active response to the call of another?
A) attending
B) listening
C) receiving
D) feedback
29. Which of the following is the cognitive process through which we assign meaning to a
message?
A) hearing
B) perceiving
C) receiving
D) listening
30. Listening is a
A) physical event.
B) conscious process.
C) series of verbal cues.
D) call for a response.
31. Which of the following is the name for being aware that you are thinking about
something?
A) interference
B) interpretation
C) metacognition
D) communication
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32. Which of the following occurs when the message that the speaker intends is NOT the
same as the message that the audience hears?
A) misunderstanding
B) one-way communication
C) noise
D) rhetoric
33. The inability of one or more communicators to comprehend meanings or feelings is
called A) noise.
B) misunderstanding.
C) cultural differences.
D) selective listening.
34. During a sermon, a parishioner nods heartily and shouts, “Amen!” In which of the
following steps of active listening is the parishioner engaging?
A) receiving and attending
B) understanding
C) responding, paraphrasing, and clarifying
D) recalling and remembering
35. Noise is best defined as
A) a stimulus that is easily removed.
B) anything you think about or experience within yourself.
C) anything you can sense or feel.
D) anything that interferes with a message.
36. Paraphrasing is a form of
A) metacognition.
B) persuasion.
C) attending.
D) feedback.
37. A situation in which you apply great common sense is an example of
A) expertise.
B) practical wisdom.
C) attending.
D) listening.
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38. Which of the following terms refers to ways to simulate listening without actually
listening at all?
A) pretend listening
B) selective listening
C) active listening
D) defensive listening
39. Which of the following is the last step of the active listening process?
A) understanding
B) receiving and attending
C) recalling and remembering
D) responding, paraphrasing, and clarifying
40. Responding to “the call” of another is usually done
A) without thinking.
B) through a conscious process.
C) through paraphrasing.
D) before listening.
41. What is the difference between “response–ability” and responsibility?
A) Response-ability is tied to ethos; responsibility is associated with pathos.
B) Response-ability is a tendency; responsibility is a set of rules.
C) Response-ability assigns meaning to a message; responsibility is used when
constructing a message.
D) Response-ability refers to ethical orientation; responsibility refers to obligations.
42. Your mother, who is a proud supporter of the Democratic Party, watches the MSNBC
television network because the viewpoints presented by this network closely align with her own.
This is an example of
A) selective exposure.
B) pretend listening.
C) cultural differences.
D) internal noise.
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43. Kameko has selected the candidate that she wants to vote for and watches him
participate in a political debate on TV. After the debate, she remembers the things her candidate
said that she agrees with and doesn’t recall anything he said that she doesn’t agree with. Which
of the following listening styles did Kameko most likely engage in while watching the debate?
A) active listening
B) selective listening
C) pretend listening
D) ethical listening
44. Seeing the world through our own sets of beliefs, attitudes, and values is known as
A) external noise.
B) listening.
C) selective perception.
D) speaking.
45. A speaker uses an expert’s words verbatim in a speech without stating the expert’s name.
This example best exemplifies
A) plagiarizing.
B) paraphrasing.
C) eliminating noise.
D) cultivating goodwill.
46. Some have argued that communication as pure or absolute understanding is
A) possible by controlling sound.
B) possible by coordinating thoughts with language.
C) impossible because of noise.
D) impossible because of dual messages.
47. You become very upset during a fight with your friend. You know you aren’t listening to
his point of view, but you continue to nod your head. Which barrier has occurred?
A) external noise
B) cultural differences
C) pretend listening
D) selective exposure
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48. At the end of your speech, you repeat your main points to encourage your audience to
enter which step of active listening?
A) receiving and attending
B) understanding
C) responding, paraphrasing, and clarifying
D) recalling and remembering
49. Which of the following is the first step of active listening?
A) understanding
B) receiving and attending
C) responding, paraphrasing, and clarifying
D) recalling and remembering
50. For many centuries, who or what was thought to be primarily responsible for
miscommunication?
A) the listener
B) the speaker
C) feedback
D) noise
51. To which Western moral expectation are we adhering when we rehearse before
speaking?
A) Do no harm.
B) Demonstrate respect.
C) Know your stuff.
D) Be prepared.
52. What is the primary task of an ethical listener?
A) Interpret the meaning of the message.
B) Listen for the main points.
C) Determine how the speech is organized.
D) Reflect the goodwill of the speaker.
53. Which of the following is a step of active listening?
A) hearing and concentrating
B) evaluating and responding
C) quoting and paraphrasing
D) receiving and attending
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54. Which of the following is one of the three elements of ethos?
A) selective perception
B) receiving
C) expertise
D) understanding
55. Your friend Celeste, who is about to have a baby, says what sounds like, “I’m going to
birthing stool next weekend to learn more about labor and delivery.” Which active listening
stage are you engaged in when you try to decide if she meant to say “birthing school”?
A) receiving and attending
B) understanding
C) responding, paraphrasing, and clarifying
D) recalling and remembering
56. Which of the following determines how one person responds to another?
A) goodwill
B) an unspoken pact
C) context
D) practical wisdom
57. As a speaker, which of the following steps will best help you prepare to adapt to any
audience?
A) Research the topic thoroughly.
B) Practice speaking in front of a mirror.
C) Remember that you should attempt to do no harm.
D) Think about your life as a listener.
58. Active listening is an acknowledgment of the unspoken _____ between the speaker and
listener.
A) call
B) utterance
C) pact
D) noise
59. What is the speaker expected to do within an implied speech pact?
A) Speak in an engaging manner.
B) Express sincerity or genuineness of emotion.
C) Use popular culture references.
D) Eliminate internal and external noise.
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60. When you speak publicly, you ask your audience to
A) call.
B) respond.
C) cooperate.
D) commit.
61. Which of the following forms of noise would be the hardest to manage?
A) An audience member claps loudly.
B) An audience member’s cell phone rings.
C) You experience a bout of hiccups.
D) You have strongly held beliefs about a speech topic.
62. Steven McCornack describes the active listening process as a series of steps.
A) True
B) False
63. You can demonstrate that you understand what a speaker is saying by paraphrasing what
the speaker said.
A) True
B) False
64. When speaking in Western cultures, the audience expects that you will be prepared.
A) True
B) False
65. In a conversational setting, you are much more likely to remember the word-based
content of a message rather than relational information.
A) True
B) False
66. Internal noise is the easiest type of noise to anticipate and control.
A) True
B) False
67. Attending is an active response to the call of another.
A) True
B) False
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68. Listening and hearing are the same thing.
A) True
B) False
69. Listening comes before speaking.
A) True
B) False
70. We tend to listen and speak at the same time.
A) True
B) False
71. The word noise is derived from the word noxious.
A) True
B) False
72. We can follow a set of specific guidelines to cultivate goodwill.
A) True
B) False
73. There are always two messages when communicating.
A) True
B) False
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Answer Key
1. A
2. C
3. A
4. A
5. C
6. D
7. C
8. A
9. C
10. C
11. D
12. A
13. B
14. C
15. C
16. C
17. A
18. D
19. C
20. A
21. A
22. A
23. A
24. A
25. D
26. B
27. B
28. B
29. D
30. B
31. C
32. A
33. B
34. C
35. D
36. D
37. B
38. A
39. C
40. A
41. B
42. A
43. B
44. C
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45. A
46. C
47. C
48. D
49. B
50. B
51. D
52. A
53. D
54. C
55. B
56. C
57. D
58. C
59. B
60. B
61. D
62. A
63. B
64. A
65. B
66. B
67. B
68. B
69. A
70. A
71. B
72. B
73. A