영어 모의고사 (자동 편성)

문제 1

Social psychologists describe a phenomenon called the bystander effect, in which individuals become less likely ①helping a victim as the number of witnesses increases. Each observer assumes someone else will step in, and this diffusion of responsibility leaves no one ②willing to act. Cyberbullying magnifies this problem, since a single humiliating post can be witnessed by thousands of people ③scattered across the internet rather than a few standing nearby. Anonymity intensifies the effect further, allowing silent observers ④to scroll past cruel comments without feeling accountable for their inaction. Some bystanders even worry that intervening publicly might make them the bully's next target, so they choose ⑤to remain silent instead.

문제 2

Sensors buried in the soil now report moisture levels in real time, drones survey entire fields for signs of disease within minutes, and automated systems adjust irrigation without a farmer ever ①walking the rows. For large operations with the capital ②to invest, these tools have measurably increased yields while reducing water waste, addressing two problems that traditional farming has struggled with for generations. Smaller family farms, however, often cannot afford the upfront cost of this equipment, and some worry that the gap between high-tech and traditional operations will only ③widen as the technology advances further. There is also a quieter cultural cost that rarely appears in productivity reports: generations of farming knowledge, passed down through direct observation of soil, weather, and crops, risk ④being replaced by dashboards and automated alerts that few young farmers ⑤teaching to question.

문제 3

Many large companies now rely on artificial intelligence ①to screen job applications before a human ever sees them. These systems promise efficiency, scanning thousands of resumes in seconds and ranking candidates according to patterns ②drawn from previous hiring decisions. However, this reliance on historical data creates a troubling risk. If a company's past hiring favored a particular group, the algorithm may learn to treat that pattern as a marker of success and quietly reproduce it, even when no one ③intending discrimination. Unlike a human interviewer, the system offers no explanation for its choices, which makes the bias difficult ④to detect until an outside audit reveals it. Some researchers argue that fairness cannot be added afterward; it must ⑤be built into the system's design from the very beginning.

문제 4

Every time a smartphone connects to a cell tower or a Wi-Fi network, it quietly records a data point that can later ①be pieced together into a detailed map of where its owner has been. Most users agree to this tracking without ②reading the fine print, assuming that a single company's database poses little threat. The real danger, however, emerges when location data from multiple sources ③combining. A pattern that reveals a person's home, workplace, and daily route can expose far more than any single app ever intended to share. Companies often argue that anonymized data cannot be traced back to individuals, yet researchers have repeatedly ④shown that a handful of location points is enough to identify a specific person. As a result, privacy experts increasingly insist that location data ⑤deserves the same legal protection as medical records.

문제 5

As technology continues to reshape nearly every profession, the idea of finishing education after graduation ①has become outdated. Workers who once expected their initial training to last an entire career now find that skills can become obsolete within just a few years. Many professionals now take short online courses, attend workshops, or ②earn new certifications while continuing to work full-time. Companies that support this kind of continuous education often benefit as well, since employees ③bring fresh knowledge back into their daily tasks. Critics argue that constant learning can be exhausting and ④difficultly to balance with personal responsibilities. Nevertheless, most career experts insist that those who resist ongoing education risk ⑤falling behind their peers.

문제 6

Many readers assume that once they finish a book, there is ①no reason to open it again. Yet teachers who study reading often disagree, arguing that a second reading can ②reveal details a first reading misses completely. During a first reading, most of a student's attention goes toward simply following the plot, wondering what will happen next. Once the ending is already known, a second reading frees the mind to notice ③smaller things, such as a clever hint the author placed early in the story or a change in a character's tone. Some students who reread their favorite novel report that it feels almost like reading the ④same book, because they now understand the characters' motives more deeply. Teachers therefore encourage students not to rush toward new titles alone, but to occasionally return to a book they already loved, since a second visit often teaches ⑤more than the first.

문제 7

Factories that once employed hundreds of workers on an assembly line now run with a ①fraction of that staff, as robotic arms handle tasks that used to require human hands. Economists have long debated whether this shift destroys jobs or simply transforms them. Historical evidence offers some ②comfort: previous waves of automation eventually created new categories of work that no one had predicted. However, critics point out that earlier transitions unfolded over generations, giving workers ③ample time to retrain, whereas today's robots are being deployed at a pace that leaves little room for adjustment. A factory worker displaced this year cannot simply wait for a new industry to emerge decades from now. For this reason, many economists argue that the real ④challenge is not the robots themselves, but the ⑤sluggish speed at which society is expected to adapt to them.

문제 8

As private companies develop the technology to mine asteroids for rare metals and water, a legal question once confined to science fiction has suddenly become ①urgent: who, if anyone, owns the resources of outer space? Existing international treaties state that no nation may claim sovereignty over celestial bodies, but they say remarkably ②little about whether a private company may extract and sell what it finds there. Some governments have already passed domestic laws granting their own companies rights to material mined in space, a move that other nations view as a ③collective attempt to settle a question that should be decided collectively. Supporters of space mining argue that new resources could ④ease shortages on Earth and fund further exploration, while critics ⑤warn that treating space as an open frontier for extraction risks repeating the same mistakes that colonization caused on Earth.

문제 9

The same mechanism that helps citizens save more for retirement, in other words, can just as easily be turned against their financial interests. Default settings are not inherently virtuous; their ethical value depends entirely on whose interests they serve. ( ① ) A retirement plan that automatically enrolls employees at a reasonable contribution rate generally benefits those employees by overcoming their tendency toward inertia. ( ② ) A subscription service that automatically renews at a higher price unless the customer actively cancels, however, exploits that very same inertia for the company's benefit rather than the customer's. ( ③ ) Both arrangements rely on the identical psychological tendency to accept whatever has been preselected. ( ④ ) Distinguishing between beneficial and exploitative uses of default settings therefore requires examining not the mechanism itself but the intentions and incentives of whoever designed it. ( ⑤ ) Regulators increasingly demand transparency about default settings precisely because the mechanism alone cannot reveal whether it serves the consumer or merely the company offering it.

문제 10

This kind of shift can already be seen in industries such as manufacturing and retail. The job market has changed dramatically over the past few decades, and it continues to shift every year. ( ① ) Many tasks once done entirely by humans are now shared with machines and computer programs. ( ② ) As a result, some traditional jobs have slowly disappeared, while entirely new positions have emerged to replace them. ( ③ ) For example, a graphic designer today must understand complex digital software to stay competitive in the field. ( ④ ) Adapting to these changes can feel stressful, but experts note that workers who stay flexible and keep learning tend to succeed. ( ⑤ ) In this rapidly changing world, the ability to adapt may be more valuable than any single specific skill.