CET-4 Listening Passages: Learning a Language as an Adult and Sleep Before Exams

Passage One.

Is it too late to learn a new language after the age of twenty?

Many people believe it is, but the truth is more interesting.

In 2018, researchers in the United States studied almost seven hundred thousand people.

Everyone took a short online grammar quiz in English.

The results suggested that our ability to learn grammar stays strong until about seventeen.

To sound like a native speaker, it helps to start before about the age of ten.

But that's not the whole story.

Adults often learn new words faster than children, because they know how to study.

And you don't need to sound like a native speaker to communicate well!

Questions sixteen to eighteen are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question sixteen. What did the people in the 2018 study do?

Question seventeen. According to the study, until what age does our ability to learn grammar stay strong?

Question eighteen. What is the speaker's attitude towards adult language learners?

Passage Two.

Many students think the best way to prepare for an exam is to stay up all night.

Science says otherwise.

In 2019, researchers at MIT gave nearly ninety students fitness trackers to wear.

The trackers recorded how long and how well the students slept during one term.

Sleep explained almost a quarter of the differences in their grades!

But here's the surprising part.

Sleep on the night before a test made little difference.

What mattered was regular sleep in the weeks before.

So start sleeping well today, not the night before the exam!

Questions nineteen to twenty-one are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question nineteen. What did the researchers give the students?

Question twenty. What did the study find about sleep on the night before a test?

Question twenty-one. What is the speaker's advice?