“It does seems very strange that Trump is ignoring the state department while apparently    (A)    Bob Dole, a lobbyist for Taiwan, to make arrangements for him in    (B)    appears to be a change in US policy dealing with Taiwan," Fred Wertheimer, the founder and president of watchdog group Democracy 21, told Politico. 

"Dole's interests here certainly involved Taiwan's interests more than it    (C)    American interests, and the fact that he was the intermediary raises a serious issue about just how President-elect Trump is going to make U.S. Foreign policy."

Often, a word is used with more than one meaning. Indeed, a brief look at a dictionary will show you that the majority of words are used with more than one meaning. If such words were said to be ambiguous, then the vast majority of words would be ambiguous. However, linguists and philosophers usually call a word "ambiguous" only when there is some uncertainty about which meaning is being used in the particular instance. A word isn't ambiguous by itself but is used in an ambiguous way: it is ambiguous when one cannot tell from the context what sense is being used. For example, let us take two statements: (1) He may come. (2) He may not come. In fact there is no basic difference between these two sentences. Because, 'he may come' means 'he may not come' also. Similarly, 'he may not come' means 'he may come' as well simultaneously. However, (가) in most cases one can tell from the context what sense is being used. For example, if you say "I'm going to the bank to deposit some money," I don't expect you to go to the river bank. The word "bank" has these two senses (and more), but it is not thereby ambiguous: the two senses are so unrelated that no one is likely to confuse them.

The Mediterranean island nation has launched a number of progressive social reforms since ①its Labour government was elected in 2013, and has twice ②named as the European country that best respects the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex people by the advocacy group ILGA-Europe.

The new law also decrees that "no sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression constitutes a disorder, disease or shortcoming of any sort," and ③lowers the age to 16 at which people can request a change in gender without their parents' approval.

Supporters of gay conversion therapy argue it uses common psychological or counselling techniques ④to help people voluntarily change their sexual orientation, but the practice is ⑤widely condemned. 

*decree: (법령, 판결 등에 따라) 명하다

The main reason you're drawn to novel or surprising things is that it could upset the safe, predictable status quo and even threaten your survival. If you've ever tried to carry on a conversation in a room in which a TV is playing, you know that it's hard not to glance at the screen occasionally. Even if you don't want to watch, your brain is attracted by ①that constantly shifting stream of images, because change can have life or death consequences. Indeed, if our early African ancestors hadn't been good at fixing all their attention on ②the just ripened fruit or the approaching predators, we wouldn't be here. For the same reason, a strong sensitivity to ③the odd detail that doesn't quite correspond with the way things usually are or ought to be is a major asset for ④a soldier in a war zone. Even in every situation, you can't afford to miss ⑤that jaywalker darting in front of your car or the single new and important fact in a long, boring list. 

일단 교과서와 학교자체교재에서 대부분의 문제가 출제되므로 학교 내신범위에 속한 지문들의 본문암기가 기본적으로 필요하고, 어법에 대한 출제 문제들의 난이도가 비교적 높으므로 평소 기본 어법에 대한 학습이 철저히 이루어져서 문장의 정확한 분석을 통해 의미를 해독할 수 있는 능력을 길러야 하고 외부지문 출제에 대비해서 수능 기출문제와 모의고사 기출문제는 물론 CNN news 등 시사 저널리즘 지문들도 틈나는 대로 읽어두며 어법적인 부분을 체크해 둔다면 신학기 내신대비 성공의 관건이 될 것으로 보인다.

In the late 1800s, the railroads were the biggest companies in the U.S. Having achieved such a huge success, even changing the landscape of America, remembering WHY they started doing this business stopped being important to them. Instead, they became obsessed with WHAT they did ― they were in the railroad business. This narrowing of perspective influenced their decision-making ― they invested all their money in tracks and engines. But at the beginning of the twenties century, a new technology was introduced: the airplane. And all those big railroad companies eventually went out of business. What if they had defined themselves as                                       ? Perhaps they would have seen opportunities that they otherwise missed: they would own all the airlines today.

One day after the space shuttle Challenger exploded, Ulric Neisser asked a class of 106 students to write down exactly where they were when they heard the news. Two and a half years later, he asked them the same question. In that second interview, 25 percent of the students gave completely different accounts of where they were. Half had significant errors in their answers and less than 10 percent remembered with any real accuracy. Results such as these are part of the reason people make mistakes on the witness stand when they are asked months later to describe a crime they witnessed. Between 1989 and 2007, 201 prisoners in the United States were proven innocent on the basis of DNA evidence. Seventy-five percent of those prisoners had been declared guilty on the basis of mistaken eyewitness accounts.

Edith Wharton was born into a wealthy family in 1862 in New York City. ① Educated by private tutors at home, she enjoyed reading and writing early on. After her first novel, The Valley of Decision, ② published in 1902, she wrote many novels and some gained her a wide audience. Wharton also had a great love of architecture, and she designed and ③ built her first real home. During World War I, she devoted much of her time to ④ assist orphans from France and Belgium and helped raise funds to support them. After the war, she settled in Provence, France, and she finished writing The Age of Innocence there. This novel won Wharton the 1971 Pulitzer Prize, making her the first woman ⑤ won the award.

Have you ever heard anyone say, "I had to carry the ball."? The expression "to carry the ball" means to take responsibility for getting something done. We use clichés like this every day in our speech. These expressions are colorful and often appealing in their economy and ability to convey an image or description of an emotion or situation. Someone may be "cold as ice" or "brave as a lion." A story may be "too funny for words." These expressions in speech do little harm. In writing, however, clichés suffer the fate of the familiar becoming boring. Your reader has heard and read these expressions so often that they tend to "bounce off" the reader so swiftly that they lose their appeal. Therefore, if you want your writing to be stronger and more effective, try not to use clichés. Clichés in writing ultimately diminish the strength and effectiveness of your message.

“Can you quiz me on some ⓐ word, Dad?"

"Sure, Olivia. Let's start with a hard one. 'Serendipitous."

I make a face. "Well, that's too easy for me. S-E-R-E-N-D-I[P-I-T-O-U-S."

"Yes, you got it! How about 'narcissism.'?"

"Easy. N-A-R-C-I-C-I-S-M."

"I am afraid that's wrong."

I ⓑ put down my fork. "What do you mean it's wrong? N-A-R-C-I-C-I-S-M. That's how it's ⓒ spell." 

"Sorry, dear. That's not the answer. You can ⓓ look up it in the dictionary if you want." 

I hurry to my room and get out my dictionary. 

"K ... L ... M ... N!" I search the page and find it: narcissism. I close the book and walk back to the kitchen. 

"You were right." I say sadly ⓔ sliding back into my chair. 

"Oh, cheer up. Now you'll know how to spell it if you ⓕ get it at the bee today."

모의고사 기출문제 등을 통해 수능형 독해 문제들을 푸는 요령을 잘 정리해 나가야 합니다. 특히 어법 문제와 더불어 빈칸추론 문제와 제목 문제 등에서 잦은 실수가 유발되므로 반드시 등급을 올려야 할 학생들은 난이도 높은 어법 문제들과 빈칸추론 및 제목추론 문제들을 자주, 많이 풀어보아야 하겠습니다. 또한, 어법적으로 문제가 될 만한 문장들을 선별하여 영작해 보는 것이 배점이 높은 서술형 문제에서 최대한의 점수를 받아내는 전략이 될 수 있으리라고 봅니다.