CET-4 Listening Passages: Why We Put Things Off and Learning to Swim at Seventy

Passage One.

Why do we put off important tasks, even when we know they matter?

Many people think it's because they're lazy.

But researchers say the real reason is our feelings.

When a task feels boring or difficult, we feel bad.

So we do something easy instead, like checking our phones.

We feel better for a moment, but the task is still there.

The good news is that there's a simple trick.

Tell yourself you'll work for just five minutes.

Once we start, the task usually feels much easier than we expected.

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

Question sixteen. What is the real reason people put off tasks?

Question seventeen. Why do people check their phones instead of working?

Question eighteen. What does the speaker suggest?

Passage Two.

Margaret Hill was seventy when she decided to learn to swim.

As a child, she had almost drowned in a river, and she'd been afraid of water ever since.

At her first lesson, she couldn't even put her face in the water.

But her teacher was patient, and Margaret came back every week.

After six months, she swam her first full length of the pool!

Now she swims three times a week and helps other older beginners.

She says the hardest part wasn't swimming. It was walking through the door.

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

Question nineteen. Why was Margaret afraid of water?

Question twenty. What happened at her first lesson?

Question twenty-one. What does Margaret say was the hardest part?

Two stories, one lesson: the first step is always the hardest.

So take it today.