영어 모의고사 (자동 편성)

Every Wednesday evening, a small group meets in the corner of a quiet cafe, coffee cups in hand, ready ①to talk about a book they have all just finished. This is a book club, and its members insist that reading the same novel together ②changes the experience completely. Alone, a reader usually forms one interpretation and rarely questions it again. In a group, however, one member's small comment about a minor character can suddenly change how everyone else ③understood the whole story. Members also say that having a discussion planned in advance ④push them to finish books they might otherwise put down halfway through. Perhaps the greatest benefit is social rather than literary: strangers from very different backgrounds discover that they share the same doubts, laughter, and surprises ⑤over the very same pages.

Classical economic theory assumes that consumers ①evaluate every price change in the same rational way, weighing marginal benefit against marginal cost regardless of the absolute numbers involved. Behavioral economists, however, have discovered a striking exception: the moment a price drops to exactly zero, people's judgment ②shift in a way that ordinary discounting cannot explain. In a well-known laboratory experiment, participants chose between two chocolates, one of higher quality ③priced at a small fee and one of lower quality offered for free. When both prices were merely ④reduced by the same amount, most participants still preferred the higher-quality option. Yet once the cheaper chocolate's price was lowered to zero, the majority abruptly switched their preference, even though the price gap between the two options had not actually ⑤changed.

When people face a difficult decision, they often weigh not only the expected outcome of each option but also how painful it would feel ①to discover later that a different choice had been better. This anticipation of future regret, rather than the size of the potential loss itself, frequently becomes the dominant factor ②shaping the final decision. Investors, for example, sometimes continue holding a declining stock rather than ③selling it, not because they expect the price to recover, but because selling would force them to confront the possibility ④of having made a clear mistake. Researchers have found that people feel sharper regret over losses that resulted from taking action than over identical losses that resulted from doing nothing, which ⑤help explain why so many individuals default to inaction whenever a decision feels uncertain.

Desalination, the process of removing dissolved salts from seawater to produce fresh water, has increasingly been adopted by coastal regions facing chronic water ①scarcity. Most modern facilities rely on reverse osmosis, a technique in which seawater is forced through membranes whose microscopic pores block salt while letting water molecules pass. Because this method ②consumes far less energy than the thermal distillation once dominant in the industry, it has become the preferred choice for large-scale plants. Nevertheless, desalination remains an inherently costly and environmentally burdensome solution, a fact often overlooked amid enthusiasm for ending water shortages. For instance, the process generates a ③concentrated byproduct called brine, which, when discharged without adequate dilution, can raise local salinity to levels that harm marine life. Pumping seawater through membranes at high pressure also demands substantial electricity, so plants powered by fossil fuels can ④alleviate the emissions that intensify drought. Therefore, engineers increasingly argue that desalination should be treated not as a stand-alone remedy but as one component of a ⑤broader conservation strategy.

Biodegradable plastics have been promoted as a promising solution to plastic waste, since they are designed to decompose into natural substances rather than persist for centuries. Manufacturers derive these materials from renewable resources such as corn starch, blending them with additives that accelerate microbial breakdown once discarded. However, _______________. For example, a bag labeled biodegradable may take years, not the weeks advertised, to break down in a landfill or ocean, where temperature and microbial activity remain low. In addition, when mixed with conventional plastics in recycling streams, they can contaminate the process, weakening the quality of materials produced afterward. Some engineers therefore compare biodegradable plastics to a bridge that leads nowhere unless paired with infrastructure that completes the journey. Ultimately, realizing their genuine potential requires not only technological refinement but also facilities capable of providing the precise conditions decomposition demands.

Students are frequently told that where they study makes little difference, provided that they put in enough hours. Cognitive research on memory retrieval, however, suggests that this advice oversimplifies an important process. According to the encoding specificity principle, information becomes intertwined with the context in which it was originally learned. Cues present during encoding therefore facilitate retrieval far more effectively than cues encountered elsewhere. A striking demonstration involved divers who memorized word lists either underwater or on dry land. When tested later, _______________. This held true regardless of which environment that happened to be. This finding implies that reviewing material exclusively in a quiet bedroom may not adequately prepare a student for the noisy atmosphere of an actual examination hall. Rather than assuming that memorization is a context-free process, students ought to consider deliberately varying study locations and conditions. Doing so would ensure that retrieval cues remain available regardless of how a future test is administered.

Riding a bicycle is one of the most popular ways for teenagers to get around, yet many students still skip the one piece of equipment that could save their life: the helmet. (A) Wearing a helmet does not prevent a fall, but it dramatically reduces the chance of a serious head injury when one occurs. (B) A sudden pothole, a car door opening without warning, or a patch of gravel can throw even an experienced cyclist off balance in an instant. (C) Some argue that a short trip to a nearby store does not require any special protection, since the risk feels distant and unlikely, but most accidents actually happen close to home, on familiar streets where riders feel too comfortable to expect danger.

For our club's spring project, we were told to create a sculpture using only materials collected from the school's recycling bins, and my first reaction was disappointment at not being allowed to buy proper art supplies. (A) Sorting through flattened cardboard, broken umbrella frames, and plastic bottle caps, I initially saw nothing but trash. (B) My perspective shifted once a senior member showed me a piece she had built the previous year, a bird made entirely of bent bicycle spokes and bottle caps, each cap functioning as a single feather. (C) She explained that upcycling art forces a creator to notice a material's natural shape and texture rather than simply painting over it, which often produces more original results than starting with a blank, expensive canvas.

Janis identified several warning signs, including an illusion of invulnerability that leads a group to underestimate risk, pressure on dissenters to fall in line, and self-appointed mindguards who shield the group from information that might disrupt its confidence. Even highly capable individuals can make disastrous collective decisions once they are absorbed into a tightly knit group, a phenomenon psychologist Irving Janis termed groupthink. ( ① ) Within cohesive committees, boards, and advisory councils, members often prioritize consensus and group harmony over a rigorous evaluation of alternatives, silencing doubts rather than risking the discomfort of dissent. ( ② ) Sociologists extend this analysis beyond small committees, noting that entire organizations can develop cultures that reward conformity and punish employees who raise inconvenient questions. ( ③ ) Historical inquiries into policy failures and corporate disasters frequently reveal that critical information existed within the organization but never reached decision makers. ( ④ ) This was not because it was hidden, but because no one felt safe enough to voice it aloud. ( ⑤ )

주어진 문장: This curvature reflects a broader principle: sensitivity to change diminishes as the underlying quantity grows, whether that quantity represents a gain or a loss. Prospect theory proposes that the subjective value of money is not a straight line but a curved function, differing sharply from the assumptions of classical economic models. ( ① ) In the domain of gains, the function bends downward as amounts increase, so the psychological difference between earning zero and one hundred dollars feels far greater than between earning one thousand and eleven hundred. ( ② ) A parallel pattern appears among losses, where the curve bends in the opposite direction, yet sensitivity still fades as the amount grows larger. ( ③ ) This tendency, known as diminishing sensitivity, explains why a shopper barely notices a ten dollar increase on a two thousand dollar purchase, though the same ten dollars would matter enormously as the price of a meal. ( ④ ) Researchers illustrate this curvature with graphs shaped like an S turned sideways, sloping gently near the center and flattening toward both extremes. ( ⑤ ) Understanding this curvature allows economists to predict decisions that a simple, linear model of value could never anticipate.