영어 모의고사 (자동 편성)

As more schools shift toward digital textbooks and online assignments, a student without reliable internet access at home faces a disadvantage that has little to do with talent or effort. During recent years, this gap became impossible to ignore, as families in rural areas or low-income neighborhoods ①struggled to complete schoolwork that assumed a stable connection and a personal device. Some policymakers initially treated internet access as a convenience, comparable to cable television, rather than as infrastructure ②essential to modern life. That assumption is increasingly ③reconsidering, particularly as more essential services, from job applications to medical appointments, move online by default. Closing this divide will require more than simply distributing devices; it will demand sustained investment in the physical networks ④that carry information into every home, ⑤regardless of income or location.

Behavioral economists have long observed that people tend to feel the pain of losing something more intensely than the pleasure of gaining an equivalent amount, a tendency ①known as loss aversion. This asymmetry, which ②was first documented through a series of carefully designed experiments, suggests that the psychological weight of a loss can be roughly twice that of a comparable gain. Consider an investor who refuses to sell a declining stock, ③clings to the hope that its price will eventually recover, even when all available evidence indicates that selling and reinvesting elsewhere would be more rational. Such behavior, though it ④appears irrational from a purely economic standpoint, becomes understandable once we recognize that the investor is trying to avoid the sharp discomfort associated with realizing a loss. Similarly, consumers often demand a much higher price to give up an item they already own than they would be ⑤willing to pay to acquire the same item in the first place.

Two years ago, I began volunteering at an animal shelter near my neighborhood on weekends. My tasks included feeding animals, cleaning cages, and helping visitors choose a pet to adopt. Over time, I noticed how much I ①enjoyed calming nervous or injured animals. One rainy afternoon, a frightened puppy refused to eat, and I sat quietly beside it for over an hour until it finally ②relaxed. Watching the puppy trust me changed something inside me. I began researching careers in veterinary medicine and animal behavior, subjects I had ③frequently considered before. My volunteer work, which started as a simple ④hobby, slowly turned into the ⑤clearest career direction I had ever found.

Secondhand trading platforms, once considered a niche market for used goods, have grown into a mainstream part of consumer culture. Rising prices for new products, combined with growing awareness of environmental waste, have encouraged many shoppers to consider used items before purchasing something brand new. These platforms allow individuals to sell clothing, electronics, and furniture directly to other consumers, cutting out traditional retail markups entirely. However, buying secondhand carries certain risks, since items cannot always be inspected closely before purchase, and some sellers misrepresent the condition of their products. To address this problem, many platforms now offer buyer protection programs and detailed rating systems for sellers. As trust in these systems continues to grow, ___________.

For much of its history, economic theory treated emotion as a distortion to be eliminated from otherwise rational calculation. More recent research, however, suggests that emotion functions not merely as noise but as an integral component of sound judgment. Financial regulators have begun incorporating this understanding into policy design, recognizing that decisions made under conditions of acute emotional arousal, such as panic during a market downturn, often depart substantially from the ___________ that individuals would exhibit under calmer circumstances.

The scarcity effect operates with particular force when a deadline, rather than a fixed quantity, defines the limitation. (A) A countdown timer displayed beside an online offer, for instance, creates a constant visual reminder that the opportunity to purchase is steadily disappearing, prompting many shoppers to decide before they have fully considered the purchase. (B) Because the clock continues ticking regardless of the shopper's readiness, the pressure to act quickly can override the more deliberate evaluation that a purchase might otherwise receive. (C) Retailers have accordingly found that adding an explicit deadline, even an artificial one that resets shortly afterward, reliably increases the speed and frequency of purchase decisions.

Consider a large heap containing ten thousand grains of sand. (A) Something has clearly gone wrong along the way, since no reasonable person would call one grain of sand a heap, but pinpointing exactly which single removal transformed a heap into a non-heap seems impossible. (B) Nearly everyone agrees that removing a single grain from such a heap leaves another heap behind, since surely one grain could never make the difference between a heap and a non-heap. (C) Yet if this principle is applied repeatedly, grain by grain, the heap eventually shrinks to a single lonely grain, or even to no grains at all, and logic alone seems to force us to accept that this final result still counts as a heap.

The rise of autonomous vehicles has created both excitement and anxiety within the transportation industry. (A) In particular, long-distance trucking jobs are expected to shrink significantly as autonomous trucks become more common on highways. (B) At the same time, entirely new positions are emerging, such as remote operators who monitor fleets of self-driving vehicles from control centers. (C) On one hand, many professional drivers fear that automation will eliminate the jobs they currently depend on.

Whether or not a goal is motivating often depends on how clear it is. (A) For example, a student who simply decides to study harder often loses direction because the plan is too vague. (B) In contrast, a student who sets a clear goal, such as raising an English score by ten points, knows exactly what to do every day. (C) This is because a clear goal gives the brain an exact target to focus on, which makes progress easy to measure and keeps people motivated.

Selling products directly to customers has never been easier. More and more teenagers today dream of starting their own business someday. ( ① ) Some students design and sell handmade jewelry online, while others create simple mobile apps as a hobby. ( ② ) This growing interest is partly due to the internet, which makes it easy to reach customers without a physical store. ( ③ ) Starting a small business also teaches skills that traditional classes rarely offer, such as managing money and marketing a product. ( ④ ) However, young entrepreneurs face real challenges too, and mistakes can feel discouraging at first. ( ⑤ ) Still, most teen entrepreneurs say that failure taught them more than any success did.