A listener who hears sounds in the background but ignores them is into _______.

• A. Active listening
• B. Marginal listening
• C. Selective listening
• D. Critical listening

Answer: (B)

Listening at the margins means you don’t devote full attention to every sound around you; you catch the main message but let peripheral noises slide by. In this case, the listener notices background sounds but doesn’t respond to them, which fits that idea of lightly-engaged listening. This contrasts with active listening, where you fully concentrate and often give feedback; selective listening, where you choose which parts to attend to; and critical listening, where you evaluate and judge what you hear. So, the scenario shows a listener who is aware of background sounds but largely ignores them, embodying marginal listening.