Joy English · Level C2 · Psychologyjoy-english.com
Attention as a scarce currency
Name:Date:
Follow an extended metaphor and abstract nouns.
Listen to each sentence and write what you hear.
Audio and answer checking: https://joy-english.com/listening-lessons/attention-as-a-scarce-currency
Words to know
- scarce
- Not available in large amounts.
- cumulative
- Growing larger as things are added.
- insidious
- Harmful in a way that is hard to notice.
- linger
- To stay somewhere longer than needed.
Answer key
- Economists have long insisted that anything scarce must be priced, yet our attention is spent daily without a receipt.“Have long insisted” is present perfect. “Yet” here means but, with a note of surprise.
- Every notification asks for a small payment, and the cumulative bill is a mind that can no longer linger on one thing.“Cumulative”: CUE-myoo-luh-tiv. The noun phrase “a mind that can no longer…” hides the point at the end.
- What makes this so insidious is that the transaction feels free; nobody pays money, and so nobody counts the cost.This cleft sentence starts “What makes this…” and delays its answer. “Insidious” has stress on “sid”.
- Rarely do we ask what we would have thought about, had we not been interrupted.After “rarely” the verb comes first: “do we ask”. “Had we not been” means if we had not been.
- If attention is the raw material of a good life, then guarding it is hardly a luxury.“Hardly” is a negative word: guarding attention is not a luxury. Listen for the pause after “life”, which separates the condition from the conclusion.