영어 모의고사 (자동 편성)

Setting a goal such as 'I will study harder' rarely ①leads to meaningful improvement. According to psychologists Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, specific and challenging goals ②produce far better performance than vague or easy ones. This idea, known as goal-setting theory, suggests ③that clear targets direct attention and sustain effort over time. To apply this theory effectively, many educators recommend the SMART framework, which ④require goals to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Because the goal includes a clear number and a deadline, progress becomes easy ⑤to track and evaluate.

Among strategies for improving concentration, the Pomodoro Technique remains one of the most widely ①recommended methods for students and workers. This technique involves working with full attention for twenty-five minutes, then ②taking a short five-minute break before starting the next session. After completing four of these cycles, a longer break of fifteen to thirty minutes ③is usually taken to allow mental recovery. The method assumes that sustained focus becomes harder to maintain as time passes, so frequent short breaks prevent mental fatigue from ④build up. Students preparing for exams report finishing reading assignments faster when they follow this structured rhythm instead of studying without interruption. Office workers find that dividing large projects into short, timed intervals makes overwhelming tasks feel more manageable. Because each interval has a clear start and end, procrastination becomes less tempting, since beginning a single twenty-five-minute session requires less commitment ⑤than beginning an entire project.

An echo chamber refers to an online environment where people are mainly exposed to opinions that already ①match their own beliefs. This phenomenon occurs because social media algorithms tend to recommend content similar to what users have previously liked or shared, gradually ②narrowing the range of perspectives they encounter. As a result, individuals inside an echo chamber ③frequently engage with viewpoints that challenge their existing assumptions, which allows their original beliefs to grow increasingly extreme over time. For example, someone who frequently reads articles supporting one political party may begin to see the opposing party as entirely ④unreasonable, having never seriously considered its arguments. Political polarization, a significant issue in many countries today, is often linked to this pattern of ⑤selective exposure.

Willpower is like a muscle that becomes ①tired after being used too much, so people often run out of self-control by the end of a busy day. Many resolutions are unrealistic from the beginning, since people set goals that are far too ②easy to reach in a short time, and when a goal feels impossible, people quickly ③lose motivation and stop trying. Most resolutions do not offer any ④immediate reward, so people find it hard to stay motivated without seeing fast results. Understanding these reasons can help people design goals that are more ⑤realistic and rewarding.

Riding a bicycle is a great way to stay active during summer vacation, but safety should always come ①first. Wearing a helmet is essential, since it can ②prevent serious head injuries in an accident. It is also important to wear bright or reflective clothing so that drivers can see you ③clearly. Riders should always follow traffic signals and ride in the same direction as traffic, never against it, since going against traffic makes accidents much ④less likely. Carrying a water bottle is wise, since dehydration can cause dizziness and affect your ⑤balance.

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.

To compensate for their carbon emissions, many individuals and companies now purchase carbon offsets, financial credits that fund projects such as planting trees or building renewable energy plants. The idea is appealing: paying for an equivalent amount of carbon to be absorbed elsewhere should cancel out the harm caused by activities like flying. However, critics argue that this system often functions as _______________. For example, a newly planted forest may take decades to absorb the promised carbon, and it could later burn down or be cut, erasing any benefit. Moreover, some offset projects would have happened anyway, meaning the credits fund nothing truly additional. Therefore, relying heavily on offsets allows businesses to maintain harmful practices while appearing responsible. Experts insist that offsetting should complement, not replace, direct reductions in fossil fuel use if the strategy is to remain credible.

Those decisions, small as they sound, were entirely her own to make. My cousin, who has never taken a single music lesson, recently used a composing app on her phone to write a short song for her friend's birthday video. ( ① ) Watching her work, I realized the app handled much of the technical difficulty that used to stop beginners from composing at all, automatically keeping her melody in key and suggesting chords that matched the mood she selected. ( ② ) What the app could not do, however, was decide which four notes actually felt right for the opening line, or when a pause said more than another note would have. ( ③ ) She spent nearly an hour adjusting a single short phrase until it matched the feeling she wanted to capture, deleting and replaying it dozens of times. ( ④ ) Watching her patient trial and error, I understood that these tools lower the technical barrier to making music, but they do not remove the very human task of deciding what a piece of music is actually trying to say. ( ⑤ )

주어진 문장: That plan, however, took an unexpected turn during his final year of university. Jiho had always assumed he would join a large corporation after graduation, just as his parents expected. ( ① ) He joined a small student team building an app that connected local farmers directly with restaurants. ( ② ) What started as a class project gradually turned into something more serious, as several restaurants began placing regular orders through their prototype. ( ③ ) Jiho and his teammates decided to delay job applications and instead spend a year developing the idea, despite warnings from relatives who considered the plan too risky. ( ④ ) They worked from a cramped apartment, surviving on limited savings while learning skills ranging from coding to negotiating with suppliers. ( ⑤ ) After nearly failing twice, the team secured a small investment that allowed them to hire their first employee.

This admission, however, is precisely what the sunk cost fallacy makes so difficult to accept. Consider a construction firm that has spent several years and a substantial budget building a bridge, only to discover partway through that a cheaper and safer alternative route has since become available. ( ① ) A purely forward-looking analysis would compare the remaining cost of finishing the original bridge against the total cost of switching to the new route, ignoring whatever has already been spent. ( ② ) If the new route is genuinely cheaper going forward, the rational choice is to abandon the original project regardless of how much money it has already consumed. ( ③ ) Abandoning the project, however, requires the firm's leadership to publicly acknowledge that a significant portion of the original investment produced no lasting value. ( ④ ) As a result, firms often continue projects long after the numbers clearly favor stopping, simply to avoid confronting this uncomfortable truth. ( ⑤ ) The bridge, in such cases, becomes less a matter of engineering than a monument to the difficulty of admitting a costly mistake.