A sentence that is used to present test words in statistical intelligibility tests (for example, “Would you write <test word> now”). The test word is spoken without emphasis, and the sentence is the same for each test word. The carrier sentence assures that the reverberant field is excited prior to the test word being spoken, so that its effects are properly accounted for in the test. It also allows dynamics processors such as automatic gain controils or compressors to activate and stabilize.