Reading › Re-order Paragraphs
Exercise 9
Task reminder: Type the correct order (A, B, C…) in the boxes to restore the original paragraph sequence. Start by finding the topic sentence — it has no backward references.
1. The Psychology of Procrastination
| A. Despite intending to act, many people delay tasks even when they know delay is counterproductive — a phenomenon known as procrastination. | |
| B. The emotional root of procrastination is typically avoidance: tasks associated with anxiety, boredom, self-doubt, or fear of failure are pushed aside in favour of activities that provide immediate comfort. | |
| C. Understanding procrastination as an emotional regulation problem rather than a time management problem suggests more effective interventions: addressing the underlying anxiety is more useful than adding more deadlines. | |
| D. Behavioural strategies such as breaking tasks into small, concrete steps and working in short focused bursts can reduce the emotional overwhelm that triggers avoidance. |
Show Answer 2. Endangered Languages Show Answer 3. Artificial Photosynthesis Show Answer A. Of the approximately seven thousand languages spoken today, linguists estimate that more than half are at risk of disappearing within the century as communities shift to dominant national or global languages. B. The loss of a language is not merely the loss of a communication system — it erases entire bodies of ecological knowledge, oral literature, and cultural identity encoded in vocabulary and grammar. C. Languages die when the last fluent speakers die without having transmitted the language to the next generation, typically because economic pressures favour adopting a majority language. D. Revitalisation efforts, such as those that restored spoken Irish and Hebrew, demonstrate that language death is not inevitable, provided communities have the will and resources to sustain transmission to children. A. Artificial photosynthesis is the attempt to replicate the process by which plants convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into chemical energy. B. Unlike solar panels, which convert sunlight directly into electricity, artificial photosynthesis aims to store solar energy in chemical bonds — producing fuels like hydrogen that can be transported and used on demand. C. Researchers have developed photoelectrochemical cells that use sunlight to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, with the hydrogen serving as a clean, storable fuel. D. If artificial photosynthesis could be scaled to industrial levels, it would offer a pathway to both renewable energy storage and the capture of atmospheric carbon dioxide, addressing two of the most pressing challenges of climate change simultaneously.