CPE task
I have heard it ___ that this is because of the instinctive distaste we feel at writing something we are not going to be paid for.
SAID
TOLD
REMARKED
PRESUMED

Please help me to choose correct answer, and explain meaning of the sentence (or maybe rewrite it in simpler manner).

Question

CPE task
I have heard it ___ that this is because of the instinctive distaste we feel at writing something we are not going to be paid for.
	SAID
	TOLD
	REMARKED
	PRESUMED

Please help me to choose correct answer, and explain meaning of the sentence (or maybe rewrite it in simpler manner).

Answer

OK first, the bad news: you can put any of these in the sentence.  I guess you've already searched the phrase and found native examples of all four.  However, a couple of these phrases are fairly rare.

The natural collocation (ie. these words simply go together; that's all) that we use is "I've heard it said".  The phrase basically means, "I heard it somewhere a few times, and this seems to be the opinion of a few people".

Answer

I have heard it said.. is most common