영어 모의고사 (자동 편성)

Sociologist Mark Granovetter introduced an idea that seems contradictory at first glance, known as the strength of weak ties. According to this theory, people who see each other only occasionally, called weak ties, often ①provide more valuable information than close friends or family members, who are considered strong ties. This happens because strong ties tend to share the same social circles and, therefore, already possess similar knowledge. Weak ties, in contrast, move within different networks, which ②allows them to introduce ideas or opportunities that would otherwise remain unknown. For example, a former classmate rarely contacted might mention a job opening unavailable through one's immediate circle. Social media platforms have made maintaining such connections remarkably easier, letting users ③keeping hundreds of loose acquaintances active without frequent face-to-face meetings. Consequently, these platforms function as efficient channels through which weak ties continue ④delivering fresh opportunities that close relationships simply cannot ⑤offer.

Recovering from a serious sports injury involves far more than simply ① waiting 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 ② preventing stiffness without disturbing the healing tissue. As pain subsides, therapists introduce light resistance training, ③ slowly rebuilding strength in muscles that have weakened from disuse. Only after strength and flexibility approach pre-injury levels ④ do 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 ⑤ translate into the specific coordination that a particular sport demands.

Insomnia is rarely caused by a single factor; it usually emerges from an interaction between psychological stress and physiological arousal that ① keeps the body from settling into sleep. A common trigger is what researchers call cognitive hyperarousal, in which the mind continues ② to racing with worries about work, relationships, or even the inability to sleep itself, creating a frustrating cycle where anxiety about insomnia becomes a cause of insomnia. At the same time, the body's stress response system can become chronically activated, ③ releasing hormones such as cortisol that keep heart rate and body temperature elevated at night, both of which interfere with the natural drop in arousal needed to fall asleep. Poor sleep habits, including irregular bedtimes and excessive screen use before bed, can further ④ weaken the body's internal signals for sleep onset. Because these psychological and physiological factors reinforce one another, effective treatment for chronic insomnia addresses both the racing mind and the underlying pattern of physical tension, rather than ⑤ relying on medication alone.

After a strenuous workout, muscle fibers experience thousands of ① microscopic tears, and the body immediately begins a repair process that ultimately makes the muscle stronger than it was before. This repair depends heavily on amino acids, the building blocks that protein supplies, which is why sports scientists recommend consuming protein within a couple of hours after training. Waiting too long to eat can ② slow recovery, since a muscle's sensitivity to amino acids gradually declines once that window closes. Many athletes assume that eating an enormous quantity of protein in a single sitting will ③ delay this process, but the body can only use a limited amount at once; the rest is simply burned for energy or stored as fat. For this reason, nutritionists generally advise spreading moderate portions of protein ④ evenly across several meals throughout the day rather than saving it all for one large post-workout ⑤ meal.

Many people believe that a new habit becomes automatic after only twenty-one days, but researchers who examined real behavior found a different number. This project, called the 66-day habit formation study, tracked volunteers who tried to adopt a new daily habit, like drinking water with lunch. Researchers measured how automatic each action felt over time and found that habits needed ___________. Yet the actual time varied widely, ranging from about eighteen days for simple habits to over two hundred days for difficult ones. This wide range explains why the popular twenty-one-day claim, though easy to remember, rarely matches real experience.

A growing number of health apps now track steps, sleep, and heart rate throughout the day, quietly building a detailed picture of a user's physical condition without requiring a single visit to a doctor's office. (A) Doctors caution, however, that these apps are designed to detect patterns, not to diagnose illness, and that a worried user should always confirm any alarming reading with a professional. (B) For people living far from specialists or unable to afford frequent checkups, this kind of constant monitoring can feel like a genuine safety net. (C) By comparing this stream of data against patterns drawn from millions of other users, the app's algorithm can flag early warning signs, such as an irregular heartbeat, long before the person notices anything unusual.

When the body fights off an infection, the immune system relies heavily on adequate sleep to function effectively. (A) Rather than being a passive state in which the body simply rests, sleep functions as an active period during which the immune system repairs itself and prepares for future threats, which is why doctors often recommend extra sleep when someone is fighting an illness. (B) Chronic sleep deprivation also appears to promote low-grade inflammation throughout the body, a state that has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease and other chronic conditions. (C) During deep sleep, the body produces and releases cytokines, proteins that help regulate immune responses, and people who consistently sleep fewer than six hours a night show measurably weaker antibody responses after vaccination.

Sleep debt refers to the cumulative gap between the amount of sleep a person needs and the amount they actually get. (A) Unlike a financial debt, however, this deficit cannot simply be repaid with a single long weekend of rest. (B) 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. (C) Researchers have found that even modest, chronic sleep restriction gradually impairs reaction time and decision-making, often without the affected person noticing the decline. This is because subjective feelings of tiredness tend to plateau after a few days, even as objective performance keeps deteriorating. Consequently, people frequently underestimate how much sleep debt they are carrying until a demanding task suddenly exposes the accumulated cost.

That advantage in volume, however, says nothing about the quality of each individual reply. When a customer opens a company's website at midnight with a billing question, an actual employee is unlikely to be available, which is exactly the gap that customer service chatbots were built to fill. ( ① ) These programs can instantly answer common questions, track packages, and process simple refunds without making anyone wait on hold. ( ② ) Companies value them because a single chatbot can handle thousands of conversations simultaneously, something no call center could ever match. ( ③ ) Yet the technology has clear boundaries. When a customer's problem is unusual, emotionally charged, or simply does not fit the chatbot's script, the automated replies can feel frustratingly circular, repeating the same suggestion no matter how the question is rephrased. ( ④ ) Many companies have responded by designing chatbots to recognize their own limits, automatically transferring a frustrated customer to a human agent before the conversation turns into a source of complaint rather than a solution. ( ⑤ )

None of these explanations, in other words, has to be the whole story. For centuries, dreams have fascinated scientists and philosophers alike, yet no single theory fully explains why the sleeping brain generates such vivid and often bizarre experiences. ( ① ) One prominent idea suggests that dreaming helps the brain process emotional experiences, replaying difficult events in a safe, low-stakes environment so that their emotional intensity gradually fades. ( ② ) Another theory proposes that dreams serve a more practical function, allowing the brain to rehearse responses to threats without any real danger, a kind of nightly simulation that may have offered early humans a survival advantage. ( ③ ) Still other researchers argue that dreaming is simply a byproduct of the brain organizing memories, with vivid imagery arising as the mind sorts through the day's information rather than serving any independent purpose of its own. ( ④ ) Because these theories rest on indirect evidence rather than direct observation of subjective experience, none has been conclusively proven. ( ⑤ ) Many scientists now suspect that dreaming may serve several of these functions simultaneously rather than just one.