Answer Key: We Hear But Do We Listen?

 We Hear But Do We Listen?

II. While Reading Tasks

•  Vocabulary-Word Inference

Word Inference

  1. perspective noun. – a way of regarding situations or topics etc.; “consider what follows from the positivist view”
  2. egocentricity noun- (egocentric adj.)  thinking only of oneself, without regard for the feelings or desires of others; self-centered : their egocentric tendency to think of themselves as invulnerable.
  3. motive  noun-the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior; “we did not understand his motivation”; “he acted with the best of motives”
  4. straddled (pt.)   straddle  – verb [ trans. ]  extend across or be situated on both sides of : a mountain range straddling the Franco-Swiss border.
  5. melancholy adj. – by or causing or expressing sadness; “growing more melancholy every hour”; “her melancholic smile”; “we acquainted him with the melancholy truth”
  6. parable noun- a short moral story (often with animal characters)
  7. principle noun-a basic generalization that is accepted as true and that can be used as a basis for reasoning or conduct; “their principles of composition characterized all their works”
  8. chatter noun- incessant trivial talk : a stream of idle chatter.
  9. tumultuous adj.-by unrest or disorder or insubordination; “effects of the struggle will be violent and disruptive”;
  10. revolt noun- organized opposition to authority; a conflict in which one faction tries to wrest control from another
  11. ingrained adj.- especially of ideas or principles) deeply rooted; firmly fixed or held; “deep-rooted prejudice”; “deep-seated differences of opinion”; “implanted
  12. linear  adj.-progressing from one stage to another in a single series of steps; sequential : a linear narrative.
  13. digressions (pl.) verb [ intrans. ] leave the main subject temporarily in speech or writing : I have digressed a little from my original plan.
  14. exuberant  adjective- filled with or characterized by a lively energy and excitement : giddily exuberant crowds | flamboyant and exuberant architectural invention.
  15. intervene  verb- [ intrans. ] interrupt verbally : “It’s true!” he intervened.
  16. parallel  noun-something having the property of being analogous to something else. (analogous: comparable, parallel, similar, like, akin, corresponding, related, kindred)

Word Recognition 

  1. I came to Africa with one purpose: I wanted to see the world outside the perspective of European egocentricity.
  2. But my motive for living this straddled existence, with one foot in African sand and the other in European snow, in the melancholy region…
  3. The simplest way to explain what I’ve learned from my life in Africa is through a parable about why human beings have two ears but only one tongue.
  4. Probably so that we have to listen twice as much as we speak.
  5. It’s a principle that’s been lost in the constant chatter of the Western world…
  6. I’ve noticed how much faster I have to answer a question during a TV interview…
  7. We talk and talk, and we end up frightened by silence...
  8. Everywhere, people on the African continent write and tell stories. 
  9. Yet everybody knows that there is truth in what I’m saying: Western literature is normally linear;

Questions for Reading Comprehension

  1. He ended up in Africa because the plane ticket there was cheapest…
  2. 25 years.
  3. Mankell  lived in  Maputo, Mozambique.
  4. Why is this? Probably so that we have to listen twice as much as we speak.
  5. From my own experience, I’ve noticed how much faster I have to answer a question during a TV interview than I did 10, maybe even 5, years ago.
  6. It’s as if we have completely lost the ability to listen.
  7. We talk and talk, and we end up frightened by silence, the refuge of those who are at a loss for an answer.
  8. Gabriel García Márquez.
  9. … it proceeds from beginning to end without major digressions in space or time.
  10. That’s not the case in Africa. Here, instead of linear narrative, there is unrestrained and exuberant storytelling that skips back and forth in time and blends together past and present.
  11. Someone who may have died long ago can intervene without any fuss in a conversation between two people who are very much alive.
  12. The nomads who still inhabit the Kalahari Desert are said to tell one another stories on their daylong wanderings, during which they search for edible roots and animals to hunt.
  13. Stories running in parallel mean there are several different stories being told by different people.
  14. But before they return to the spot where they will spend the night, they manage either to intertwine the stories or split them apart for good, giving each its own ending.
  15. “It struck me as I listened to those two men that a truer nomination for our species than Homo sapiens might be Homo narrans, the storytelling person.”
  16. What differentiates us from animals is the fact that we can listen to other people’s dreams, fears, joys, sorrows, desires and defeats — and they in turn can listen to ours.

Grammar Focus

Nouns: Africa, principle, Western, world,desire, experience,  question, TV,

IV. Listening Activity

While-Listening Tasks

Questions for  Listening Comprehension

  1. Not really.
  2. The Apartheid situation.
  3.  South Africa.
  4. 1980s.
  5. He didn’t think that the Apartheid  conflict would ever end during his lifetime.
  6. 10 years.
  7. Because during the 1980s Desmond Tutu  was as an opponent of apartheid.Tutu has also been active in the defense of human rights and uses his high profile to campaign for the oppressed. So his signature gave credence to the petition.
  8. Without a civil war  and a bloody confrontation.