영어 모의고사 (자동 편성)

Marketers have long recognized that perceived scarcity, the sense that a product or opportunity ①are available only in limited quantity or for a limited time, can dramatically increase its desirability, even when the item's intrinsic qualities remain entirely unchanged. This phenomenon, known as the scarcity effect, operates on a simple psychological principle: when something appears difficult to obtain, people tend ②to infer that it must be valuable, since truly worthless items rarely generate genuine competition for possession. A retailer who labels a product as "limited edition" or displays a countdown timer beside a discounted offer exploits this inference, ③prompting customers to make hurried purchase decisions they might otherwise postpone or reconsider. Experimental studies confirm that identical products ④are rated as more desirable and often command higher prices when framed as scarce than when the same products are presented as widely and continuously available. The effect intensifies further when scarcity is attributed to high demand rather than to limited supply alone, since competition from other buyers ⑤introduces an additional layer of urgency absent from mere supply constraints.

Modern factories increasingly rely on collaborative robots, often called cobots, ①which are designed to work safely alongside human employees. Unlike traditional industrial robots that operate behind safety cages, cobots use sensors ②detect nearby workers and adjust their movements accordingly. In practice, cobots typically handle repetitive or physically demanding tasks, such as ③lifting heavy parts, while human workers focus on tasks that require judgment. This division of labor increases overall efficiency, since each side ④contributes what it does best. Manufacturers who have introduced cobots report fewer workplace injuries, largely because employees no longer ⑤perform exhausting repetitive motions all day.

Within days, thousands of people began recreating the dance and tagging the brand, turning an ordinary product launch into a ①viral trend. Because participants created the content themselves, viewers found the videos far more ②entertaining than a traditional advertisement would have been. The company barely spent any money on production, yet the challenge reached ③millions of viewers across multiple platforms. Encouraged by this success, other brands quickly attempted similar challenges, though many ④succeeded in generating the same excitement. Researchers later explained that the original challenge succeeded because it felt spontaneous and fun rather than obviously ⑤commercial.

When engineers design the software that controls a self-driving car, they inevitably face a question that philosophers have debated for ①decades. If a crash becomes unavoidable, should the vehicle protect its own passenger at all costs, or should it be programmed to ②minimize total harm, even if that means steering toward the person inside? Surveys reveal an uncomfortable ③contradiction: most people say a car should be programmed to save the greater number of lives, yet the same people admit they would never buy a vehicle designed to sacrifice its own owner. This gap between the ideal and the personal choice suggests that ethical programming cannot be settled by public opinion alone. Manufacturers, regulators, and philosophers must instead agree on ④transparent rules before autonomous vehicles are ⑤forbidden to make such decisions on the road.

When individuals face uncertainty about how to behave, they frequently look to the actions of others for guidance. This reliance on collective behavior can be remarkably ①efficient, since it allows individuals to benefit from the accumulated judgment of a crowd without having to gather and evaluate every relevant fact themselves. However, social proof can also lead entire groups astray when the initial signal that triggers imitation is itself ②unreliable or coincidental. A restaurant that happens to attract a long line early in the evening may continue attracting customers throughout the night simply because passersby interpret the queue as evidence of ③inferior quality. Financial markets exhibit an analogous pattern: investors who observe others buying a particular asset often join the buying themselves, reasoning that so many participants cannot all be mistaken, a dynamic that can ④inflate prices well beyond any reasonable estimate of underlying value. Because conformity can substitute for independent judgment so ⑤seamlessly, individuals rarely notice when their own decisions have become mere imitations rather than genuinely deliberated.

Years ago, a small shoe company struggled to compete with larger, well-funded rivals in the market. Its products were solid, but customers rarely remembered the brand after a single purchase. One day, the founder decided to share the story behind the company: how her grandfather had once repaired shoes for factory workers who could not afford new pairs. She began printing this story on every shoebox and posting it across social media. Surprisingly, customers started responding not just to the shoes themselves but to the values the story represented. Sales slowly increased as people felt they were supporting something meaningful rather than simply buying a product. Other companies noticed this shift and began crafting their own narratives, hoping to create similar emotional connections. Eventually, the founder realized that ___________.

Hospitals are increasingly adopting AI tools that can scan medical images and flag potential tumors faster than experienced radiologists. When an AI system misses a diagnosis that a human doctor would likely have caught, responsibility becomes difficult to assign. The doctor may argue that they simply trusted a required tool, the hospital may blame the software company, and the software company may argue that no algorithm can be expected to be perfect. As a result, _______________.

The Riverside Summer Festival will take place from August 1st to August 3rd at Riverside Park. This annual event offers ___________. During the day, local farmers and small businesses will sell fresh fruits, snacks, and handmade crafts. In the evening, live music performances and a fireworks show will light up the night sky, while children can enjoy water games near the fountain area.

Ego depletion theory has sparked considerable debate among psychologists studying self-control. (A) One well-known experiment asked participants to resist eating fresh cookies while a bowl of radishes sat nearby, and these participants later gave up more quickly on a difficult puzzle. (B) The theory originally proposed that resisting temptation consumes a limited mental resource, leaving less energy available for subsequent tasks. (C) Researchers interpreted this result as evidence that resisting the cookies had drained the mental resource needed to persist on the puzzle.

Sensors buried in the soil now report moisture levels in real time, and automated systems adjust irrigation without a farmer ever walking the rows. (A) 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 widen. (B) For large operations with the capital to invest, these tools have measurably increased yields while reducing water waste. (C) There is also a quieter cultural cost: generations of farming knowledge risk being replaced by dashboards and automated alerts that few young farmers are taught to question.