As the teacher was explaining her lesson, she could see Rana lost in his thoughts. When asked to explain, Rana was not able to tell the answer, even though he was present and usually gave answers. This is because Rana was only _____.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Hearing
Option (1) Hearing — Correct. Hearing and listening are not the same. Hearing is a biological activity: the message reaches us through the sensory channels. Rana was present and the teacher’s words reached his ears, but he was lost in his own thoughts, so nothing was attended to or understood. He was only hearing.
Option (2) Listening — Incorrect. Listening is the whole process of reception, attention, assignment of meaning and the listener’s response. Had Rana been listening, he would have been able to answer.
Option (3) Paraphrasing — Incorrect. Paraphrasing means restating the speaker’s message in one’s own words to check that it has been understood. It is a skill of an active listener, the opposite of what Rana was doing.
Option (4) Reception — Incorrect. Reception is the first step of the listening process, the receiving of the auditory or visual message. It names a stage of listening, not what a person ‘is only’ doing; Rana’s state is described by the word hearing, which is the biological reception without attention.
Note: Hearing and listening, in the chapter ‘Developing Psychological Skills’, were there in the pre-rationalised NCERT, which NTA followed in 2023, and are not there in the NCERT book (2025-26). Hence this question has been picked from the pre-rationalised NCERT.
NCERT (Pre-rationalised): “Listening … Listening is an important skill that we use daily. Your academic success, employment achievement, and personal happiness, to a large extent, depend upon your ability to listen effectively. At first, listening may appear to you as a passive behaviour, as it involves silence. But this image of passivity is far from true. Listening requires a person to be attentive. S/he should be patient, non-judgmental and yet have the capacity to analyse and respond. Hearing and listening are not the same. Hearing is a biological activity that involves reception of a message through sensory channels. It is only a part of listening, a process that involves reception, attention, assignment of meaning, and listener’s response to the message presented.…” “Reception … The initial step in the listening process is the reception of a stimulus or message. A message could be auditory and/or visual.…” |