영어 모의고사 (자동 편성)

To compensate for their carbon emissions, many individuals and companies now ①purchases carbon offsets, financial credits that fund projects such as planting trees or building renewable energy plants. The idea is appealing: paying for an equivalent amount of carbon to be absorbed elsewhere should cancel out the harm caused by activities like flying. However, critics argue that this system often ②functions as a convenient excuse for postponing genuine emission cuts rather than achieving them. For example, a newly planted forest may take decades to absorb the promised carbon, and it could later ③burn down or be cut, erasing any benefit. Moreover, some offset projects would have happened anyway, meaning the credits fund nothing truly ④additional. Therefore, relying heavily on offsets allows businesses ⑤to maintain harmful practices while appearing responsible.

Recovering from a serious sports injury involves far more than simply ①waiting for torn tissue to heal; it requires a carefully structured program that gradually reintroduces stress to the affected area. Immediately after an injury, rest and gentle range-of-motion exercises help ②preventing stiffness without disturbing the healing tissue. As pain subsides, therapists introduce light resistance training, ③slowly rebuilding strength in muscles that have weakened from disuse. Only after strength and flexibility approach pre-injury levels ④do specialists introduce sport-specific drills that mimic the exact movements an athlete will face in competition. Skipping this final stage, even when an athlete feels fully recovered, dramatically increases the risk of re-injury, because general strength does not automatically ⑤translate into the specific coordination that a particular sport demands.

Only a decade ago, translation apps produced sentences so awkward that users often laughed at the results. Today, many of these apps rely on neural networks that analyze entire sentences at once, capturing context instead of translating word by word. This shift has made everyday tasks such as reading a foreign menu or chatting with an overseas friend remarkably smooth. Even so, the technology still struggles with humor, sarcasm, and cultural nuance, so that _______________. For this reason, professional translators argue that these apps are best treated as a helpful starting point rather than a final, polished result.

Imagine two factories making the same product: one in a country with strict carbon rules, and one in a country with almost none. The factory facing stricter rules often spends more, which can make its goods pricier than those made elsewhere. To fix this imbalance, some governments have introduced the carbon border adjustment mechanism, a policy charging imported goods a fee based on how much carbon was released while producing them. Supporters argue that the system _______________. However, critics claim it unfairly burdens developing countries, which often lack money to modernize factories quickly. For example, a small exporter in a poorer nation might struggle to pay the added charge, though it contributes little to global emissions. Still, if wealthier nations pair the policy with technical support, it could become a genuinely fair tool for cutting emissions worldwide.

Behavioral economists use the term status quo bias to describe a tendency to prefer the present situation over a new alternative, even when the alternative would bring greater benefits. This bias helps explain why many households hesitate to switch to renewable energy, such as installing solar panels on their roofs. Although solar panels can lower electricity bills over time, homeowners often stick with their current power source because it feels safe and requires no immediate effort. In contrast, switching demands research, upfront cost, and trust in unfamiliar technology, all of which can seem risky compared with doing nothing. For example, a neighborhood association might repeatedly postpone a vote on shared solar panels, not because the plan is flawed, but because members are reluctant to leave their routine. Therefore, boosting renewable adoption may depend less on proving its advantages and more on _______________.

Self-driving technology is advancing rapidly, and its impact on the transportation industry is becoming increasingly visible. Companies are testing autonomous trucks that can travel long distances without human drivers, potentially transforming how goods move across countries. Supporters argue that this technology could ___________, since computers do not need rest and can react faster than humans in emergencies.

Elite athletes often perform in front of enormous crowds with championships, contracts, and years of training riding on a single moment, and the psychological weight of that pressure can undermine skills that feel automatic in practice. (A) Structured breathing exercises and pre-performance routines also help athletes regain a sense of control before a decisive moment. (B) Rather than trying to eliminate nervousness entirely, which research suggests is nearly impossible, many trainers now teach athletes to reinterpret the physical symptoms of anxiety as signs of readiness rather than danger. (C) Sports psychologists explain that intense anxiety narrows attention and disrupts the smooth, unconscious execution of well-learned movements, a phenomenon sometimes called choking under pressure.

After a strenuous workout, muscle fibers experience thousands of microscopic tears, and the body immediately begins a repair process that depends heavily on amino acids, the building blocks that protein supplies. (A) Waiting too long to eat, however, can slow this recovery, since a muscle's sensitivity to amino acids gradually declines once that window closes. (B) Even so, eating an enormous quantity of protein in a single sitting will not speed things up any further, because the body can only use a limited amount at once, burning or storing the rest. (C) This is precisely why sports scientists recommend consuming protein within a couple of hours after a workout, while the muscle is still especially receptive to it.

Even a modest weight gain caused by these hormonal shifts can, over time, make the body's cells even less sensitive to insulin, creating a cycle that is hard to break. When people consistently sleep too little, the body's hormonal balance shifts in ways that can quietly encourage weight gain. ( ① ) Two hormones in particular play opposing roles in regulating appetite: leptin signals fullness to the brain, while ghrelin stimulates the sensation of hunger. ( ② ) Studies show that sleep deprivation lowers leptin levels while raising ghrelin levels, so a tired body ends up feeling hungrier than it actually needs to be, even after a normal-sized meal. ( ③ ) At the same time, insufficient sleep interferes with how efficiently the body processes glucose, making cells less responsive to insulin and leaving more sugar circulating in the bloodstream than usual. ( ④ ) Over months or years, this combination of increased appetite and reduced insulin sensitivity can contribute to steady weight gain and raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. ( ⑤ ) Because these effects build up so gradually, many people never connect their shifting eating habits or worsening blood sugar to something as ordinary as a few lost hours of sleep each night.

In other words, the body keeps a running total rather than resetting each day. Sleep debt refers to the cumulative gap between the amount of sleep a person needs and the amount they actually get. ( ① ) Unlike a financial debt, however, this deficit cannot simply be repaid with a single long weekend of rest. ( ② ) When someone loses two hours of sleep every night for a week, the body does not treat the shortage as fourteen separate small losses; instead, it accumulates the deficit, and the resulting impairment in attention and mood can resemble that of a person who has been awake for an entire night. ( ③ ) Researchers have found that even modest, chronic sleep restriction gradually impairs reaction time and decision-making, often without the affected person noticing the decline. ( ④ ) This is because subjective feelings of tiredness tend to plateau after a few days, even as objective performance keeps deteriorating. ( ⑤ ) Consequently, people frequently underestimate how much sleep debt they are carrying until a demanding task suddenly exposes the accumulated cost.