Experience Communication, 2e (Child)
Chapter 4 Communicating Through Listening
1) Speaking is a more important skill than is listening.
2) While listening is important in interpersonal relationships, it is far less important in the
workplace.
3) Listening is the act of receiving sounds.
4) Hearing and listening are essentially the same.
5) A good friend tells you that she has to cancel an activity you were going to do together. If you
are listening for her intent, you might ask why she has to cancel.
6) If you are listening to a classroom lecture, you are most likely listening for learning.
7) You and a friend attend a symphony together. At this musical event, you will most likely listen
for relating.
8) The three steps involved in listening include (1) attending or selecting, (2) scanning and
choosing, and (3) listening and remembering.
9) If you are storing information in short-term memory, you can probably recall 20 or more of
these items.
10) Listening is complicated by physical distractions, which include many kinds of noise in the
environment.
11) Of these communication skills, which is used the most?
A) reading
B) writing
C) listening
D) speaking
12) In which job is listening least likely to play an important role?
A) upper-level management
B) supervisor
C) fast-food front counter
D) night custodian
13) Which communication skill do corporate managers view as most important on the job?
A) writing reports
B) managing social media
C) listening
D) e-mailing
14) In which instance below is listening the most important communication skill?
A) You have to write a proposal for an important deal.
B) You have to train other salespeople how to sell.
C) You have to read and understand complicated directions.
D) You have to edit the proposal that your coworker wrote.
15) Hearing is the act of
A) receiving sound.
B) understanding a received message.
C) interpreting oral stimuli.
D) putting sound into action.
16) Which of the following is an example of listening?
A) The sound of the firecracker hurt his ear.
B) She understood her sister’s advice to stop worrying.
C) He ignored the sirens that echoed around the city.
D) Something woke the student in the middle of the night.
17) All of the following are examples of noise EXCEPT
A) the professor lecturing while you work on your Facebook profile.
B) the person talking on a cell phone in the cafeteria while you try to study.
C) a jackhammer outside the classroom.
D) a student taking notes on important points in the lecture.
18) Smartphones and other types of new personal communication devices are having what sort of
effect on listening skills?
A) They are improving listening skills.
B) They are diminishing listening skills.
C) They are not meaningfully affecting listening skills.
D) They are rendering listening skills less important.
19) Which of the following is NOT a good suggestion for improving your listening ability?
A) Avert your eyes so you can concentrate on listening.
B) Repeat back what you think the other person said.
C) Agree or disagree orally.
D) Make comments that are consistent with the other person’s message.
20) Which item below is an example of empathic listening?
A) You listen attentively to the professor’s lecture.
B) You hear and show understanding of your friend’s predicament.
C) You are moved by the songs of the birds outside your window.
D) You hear and respond to your supervisor’s instructions.
21) Which of the following will likely detract from your ability to listen in the classroom?
A) sitting near an entrance or exit for easy coming or going
B) keeping your laptop on for taking accurate notes
C) sitting close to the teacher
D) keeping your text open to the section being discussed
22) Which type of listening takes the least effort?
A) listening to a classroom lecture
B) listening to your favorite singer on an iPod
C) managing a customer’s complaints
D) listening to a friend’s problems
23) Different types or purposes of learning
A) happen automatically in different circumstances.
B) require different levels of effort.
C) cannot occur at the same time.
D) use the exact same processes and techniques.
24) Close personal relationships are built on
A) pleasurable listening.
B) empathetic listening.
C) listening for content.
D) listening for learning.
25) The main point about scanning and choosing is that
A) we choose to pay attention to some things while ignoring others.
B) we do not know how to rank what is most important in our environment.
C) we are victims of our surroundings because we have to attend to so much.
D) we are like video recorders that “take in” everything in sight.
26) Which of the following statements about listening and remembering is FALSE?
A) People can normally remember a seven-digit phone number.
B) College students have superior memory skills because they are educated.
C) Most speeches have three main points because remembering more is difficult.
D) A principle about remembering is seven items plus or minus two.
27) Which item below is the best example of an instance of long-term memory?
A) remembering the alphabet and multiplication tables
B) remembering to pick up a takeout dinner tonight
C) remembering your dentist appointment next week
D) remembering to pay your utility bill this month
28) Scanning and choosing refers to
A) a process of taking in stimuli and choosing what to listen to and how.
B) the act of receiving sound.
C) the literal meaning of a message.
D) trying to do two or more tasks at once.
29) Walking through a crowded sports event with thousands of people talking and picking up on a
conversation about your favorite hobby, fishing, when someone in the crowd mentions a fishing
boat is an example of
A) pseudolistening.
B) empathetic listening.
C) discerning intent.
D) scanning and choosing.
30) What is a difficulty involved with using selective attention?
A) It is hard to keep doing it for a long time.
B) It is hard to stop doing it once you have started.
C) It leads to uncontrolled reactions to sounds.
D) It leads to a lack of focus and purpose.
31) Focusing full attention on the speaker by paraphrasing, smiling, nodding, and providing other
nonverbal indicators of conversational engagement are all part of a process known as
A) scanning and choosing.
B) listening for pleasure.
C) automatic attention.
D) mindful listening.
32) Barriers to listening
A) are lowered by multitasking.
B) are rare.
C) change over time.
D) remain constant.
33) As a college student who works and has a family, you have many responsibilities. Sometimes
you might have to compose a grocery list while you are in class or read your textbooks while you
are at work. This is known as
A) bias.
B) stereotype.
C) multitasking.
D) pseudolistening.
34) An acquaintance uses the word “lady” to describe a woman he has just met. Because you
consider the term to be sexist, you are unable to listen to the content or the intent of the message.
This is known as
A) semantic distraction.
B) pseudolistening.
C) mindful listening.
D) factual distraction.
35) You find that most of your classmates are younger than you and certainly less experienced than
you in the ways of the world. Consequently, you feel that what you have to say is more important
than what they have to say. This is probably an example of
A) multitasking.
B) defensiveness.
C) mindful listening.
D) experiential superiority.
36) You have a friend who regularly interrupts you and others. She tops every story you tell with a
story that is more extreme. Even when you are talking, she plays with her jewelry and her hair,
acting distracted and keeping the focus on her. This is a classic example of
A) egocentrism.
B) pseudolistening.
C) defensiveness.
D) stereotype.
37) How is status related to listening?
A) Most people will listen more attentively to a person with high status than to one with low status.
B) As long as a source is interesting, her or his status makes little difference to listeners.
C) Listeners rarely if ever take status into account when listening.
D) Most people have a hard time listening to a high-status speaker because they feel intimidated.
38) Logan believes that, on the whole, foreigners are unintelligent. When he meets someone with a
foreign accent, he typically assumes that what they have to say is unimportant or simply incorrect
and pays little attention to what that person has to say. In this situation, the barrier affecting
Logan’s ability to listen is
A) a semantic distraction.
B) stereotyping.
C) pseudolistening.
D) defensiveness.
39) Alexis does not believe what the presidential candidates have to say because he thinks that all
politicians are liars. In this situation, the barrier affecting Alexis’s ability to listen is
A) experiential superiority.
B) a factual distraction.
C) status.
D) a personal bias.
40) Pseudolistening is defined as
A) being unable to hear.
B) pretending to pay attention.
C) responding inappropriately to a message.
D) faking an answer to a question.
41) When the speaker says he knows a lot more about a subject than you do because he is older and
wiser, the speaker is exhibiting which concept below?
A) defensiveness
B) egocentric behavior
C) experiential superiority
D) personal bias
42) You innocently ask a friend how she did on her quiz yesterday and she lashes out at you for
making fun of her. By doing so, your friend is exhibiting
A) egocentric behavior.
B) defensiveness.
C) multitasking.
D) personal bias.
43) The famous scholar had a speech defect that made him sound like a cartoon character, which
greatly hampered his audience’s ability to listen. This demonstrates how ________ can be a barrier
to listening.
A) sights and sounds
B) physical distractions
C) egocentrism
D) prejudice
44) Five characteristics of the self that can act as barriers to listening include all of the following
EXCEPT
A) defensiveness.
B) egocentrism.
C) personal bias.
D) stereotypes.
45) In 2013, Oprah Winfrey, perhaps the world’s richest African American woman, was visiting
Switzerland. She entered a very high-end shop, where she asked to have a closer look at a purse
that was in a closed cabinet. The shopkeeper said no and hinted that her customer could not afford
that item. Winfrey said that she could, but the shopkeeper again refused. Winfrey left this store and
publicized the incident. The store owner’s inability to listen to Winfrey’s request may be
attributable to
A) egocentric behavior.
B) personal bias.
C) defensiveness.
D) selective attention.