UGC-NET Business Communication: practice questions

1 · The communication process and its barriers · easy

Which communication model is summarised by the chain 'who says what, in which channel, to whom, with what effect'?

1. Berlo's SMCR model
2. Shannon and Weaver's model
3. Schramm's circular model
4. Lasswell's model

2 · The communication process and its barriers · easy

The concept of 'noise' as anything that distorts a signal between transmitter and receiver entered communication theory chiefly through

1. Rogers' theory of the diffusion of innovations in villages
2. Berlo's SMCR model of the sources of meaning in people
3. Lasswell's verbal model of mass-media propaganda research
4. Shannon and Weaver's mathematical model of communication

3 · The communication process and its barriers · easy

Using Daft and Lengel's media richness theory, which channel is most suitable for telling a long-serving supervisor that her post is being abolished?

1. A formal letter delivered by post
2. A face-to-face meeting
3. An e-mail with the restructuring plan attached
4. A notice on the staff notice board

4 · Listening · hard

A commonly cited reason why listeners' minds wander during a slow speech is that

1. people can speak considerably faster than a listener thinks, so the listener falls behind and gives up on the message
2. people can think considerably faster than a speaker talks, leaving spare mental capacity that drifts to other thoughts
3. the ear can physically hear only a few minutes of speech before it tires and stops passing sound to the brain
4. listening is an automatic reflex, so attention cannot be controlled by any technique that the listener applies

5 · Non-verbal communication · hard

A trainer tells managers that 'only 7 percent of communication is words; 93 percent is non-verbal'. What is the accurate correction?

1. Mehrabian's 7-38-55 figures came from studies of inconsistent messages concerning feelings and attitudes and do not apply to communication in general
2. The figures came from studies of written business letters and so apply only to e-mail and other written channels
3. The figures are accurate for all business messages but the split is 55 percent words, 38 percent voice and 7 percent face instead
4. The figures are accurate for all communication but apply only to face-to-face talk and not to telephone conversations

6 · Non-verbal communication · medium

A customer is kept waiting 40 minutes outside a manager's office for a scheduled appointment. In non-verbal communication, the message carried by the wait belongs to

1. kinesics
2. chronemics
3. haptics
4. proxemics

7 · Reading comprehension · easy

In the SQ3R reading method, the three Rs stand for

1. read, reflect, report
2. read, recite, review
3. review, repeat, recall
4. read, record, revise

8 · Technical writing: theses, papers and reports · medium

A researcher invents survey responses for villages that could not be visited and includes them in the analysis. This is

1. falsification
2. plagiarism
3. self-plagiarism
4. fabrication