CET-6 Listening Passages: Why Boredom Helps Creativity and the Psychology of Waiting

Passage One.

When did you last feel truly bored, with nothing at all to do?

For most of us, the answer is: not for years.

Whenever we have a spare moment, we reach for a phone.

In 2014, two British psychologists asked a group of people to do something dull.

They spent fifteen minutes copying numbers out of a phone book.

Then everyone was asked to think of uses for a pair of plastic cups.

The bored group came up with more ideas than people who had skipped the dull task!

The researchers think boredom pushes the mind to wander and look for something interesting.

So next time you're bored, don't fill the gap immediately. Let your mind drift.

Questions nine to eleven are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question nine. What did people in the study do first?

Question ten. What did the researchers find?

Question eleven. What does the speaker suggest we do when we feel bored?

Passage Two.

Why do some waits feel much longer than others?

Some years ago, an airport in Houston had a problem.

Passengers kept complaining about how long they waited for their bags.

The airport hired more staff, and the average wait fell to about eight minutes.

But the complaints didn't stop!

Then someone noticed something:

passengers walked for one minute, and then stood still for seven.

So the airport moved the arrival gates farther away from the bags.

Now people walked for six minutes and waited for only two.

The total time was the same, but complaints almost disappeared!

Psychologists say that empty time feels longer than busy time.

That's why some hotels put mirrors next to their lifts.

People check their hair, and the wait seems to fly by.

Questions twelve to fifteen are based on the passage you have just heard.

Question twelve. What were passengers at the airport complaining about?

Question thirteen. What did the airport do first?

Question fourteen. Why did the complaints almost disappear?

Question fifteen. Why do some hotels put mirrors next to their lifts?