2024 한영1-1 중간 1주차 진단고사

“It is approaching one in the morning, and I am glued to my phone. The TV is on, the laptop is ①buzzing away, and I have even got the radio on standby. If anyone asked, I would tell them I am a ②day person. The truth, though, is that I am suffering from FOMO, a condition whose acronymic name stands for the Fear of Missing Out.” This is the experience of worrying that other people have more friends than you, are doing more ③fascinating things than you, and are just all around living a better and ④more awesome life. It is actually not something new—diverse forms of this condition have been around for ages. Yet its ⑤spread and intensity in our modern age are unprecedented.

With only two minutes to play, both teams were fighting for the football. It was the last home game for the seniors of Winston High, and they were determined to win. Since it had been a close game the whole evening, the best players of each team hadn’t left the field. Once Winston High’s coach finally knew that victory was theirs, all the seniors on the sidelines were allowed to play for the last few seconds. One of the seniors, Ethan, was especially happy. He had never played in any of the games before. Now, Ethan was finally getting the chance to step onto the grass.

When the rival team dropped the ball, one 15 of our players recovered it and quickly ran down the field with it. Ethan ran right after him to catch up. As our player got closer to the end zone, he saw Ethan behind him on his left. Instead of running straight ahead, the player kindly passed the ball to Ethan so that he could score a touchdown.

All eyes were on Ethan. With the ball in his hands, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion, like in a Hollywood movie. People kept their eyes on him as he made his way to the end zone. They saw him cross the goal line right before the clock ran out.

Unexpectedly, everyone in the crowd leapt to their feet with their hands in the air. They were bursting with excited shouts and unending cheers for Ethan. In this moment, all of Ethan’s hard work and dedication was being rewarded with glory. Ethan’s touchdown didn’t win the game, but it will be worth remembering. By now you’re probably wondering why.

Well, Ethan is only five feet tall, and his legs unnaturally bend away from each other. It is difficult for him to walk, run, or move around. Because of his condition, he decided to leave his crowded high school in the big city. He moved to our school in the middle of his first year in high school. That following summer, he asked the coach if he could join the football team as a sophomore. The coach wasn’t sure at first, but in the end he allowed Ethan to come to practice. Regardless of his physical difficulties, Ethan worked just as hard as every other player on the team. Although he knew he would never be a valuable player in any of the team’s games, he poured his heart and soul into practice every day.

Over time, however, Ethan became valuable to the team in different ways. His passion for the game was an inspiration to all his teammates. Because Ethan motivated and encouraged them, they became his most passionate fans. Day in and day out, seeing Ethan’s smile, positive attitude, and hard work lifted everyone’s spirits. Right before every game, Ethan would always be in the middle of the group offering motivational words. He had a special talent for calming people down and bringing out the best in them. Ethan was also Winston High’s loudest supporter. He always observed each play carefully from the sidelines. Although he wasn’t the one making the actual plays on the field, Ethan’s mind was always right there with his teammates. Everyone could sense his love for football, and the coaches admired his commitment.

For the past three years, Ethan has been schooling us all in the game of life. He always reminds us that everyone is important to a team’s success, though their role on the team may be small. Instead of putting all his efforts into trying to be the team’s best player, he has done everything he can to make the team better. As Ethan has shown us, lifting up those around us is also of great worth. When we help others shine, their light will shine on us in return. Yes, sometimes there is something better than being the best.

One of the prime sources of FOMO, as you may have guessed, is social media, which allows you to ⓐcheck out what is happening in other people’s lives. Imagine you are spending a quiet night at home and you see pictures online of your friends ⓑhaving fun together. Or maybe you are still toiling away at your homework and you catch some of your fellow classmates ⓒenjoying their day out at the amusement park. Just scroll through the mountains of pictures and comments on social media and you will get the idea. However, FOMO-inducing media is hardly limited to the Internet. Simply take a look at the TV and you are faced with reality shows that tend to glorify the fabulous lifestyles of the rich and famous and advertisements that are populated only by gorgeous young people at ⓓbeach parties or on ⓔfantastic road trips.

When flipping through images on the Internet and social media, you are faced with mountains of highlights from the lives of others. While seeing these images may bolster your morale and help you get through your own life, it may also overwhelm you to the extent that you experience FOMO. Always remind yourself of who you are and what you want in your life so that you remain vigilant against FOMO. Whoever you wish you were or wish to emulate, nobody lives your life for you other than yourself. Beware that FOMO may cause you to miss out on __________________________.

What might be some of your first reactions to such visual stimuli? The symptoms of an onset of FOMO include nervousness, sudden restlessness, and a general feeling of anxiety that starts to impair your brain function. Allowed to fester, it sucks you into living and judging other people’s lives instead of enjoying your own, and it turns _______________ into extreme envy and depression. In order to remedy the situation once you feel an attack of FOMO coming on, make efforts to ward it off by asking yourself the following simple questions.

Is this something I really wish I was doing?

One of the most puzzling things about FOMO is that it does not always arise from seeing someone do something that you wish you were doing yourself. It is important to realize that FOMO is often not spawned from a desire to have made another person’s specific choice. To see that another person is somewhere else on the map is to remember that choosing one path means missing another. Such a reminder not only creates an awareness of this one alternative choice, but in fact brings to your mind the entire plane of seemingly infinite choices before you. The subsequent insecurity in your own choices that this gives rise to is often the root cause of FOMO. So when you feel an onset of FOMO, ask yourself if the trigger is really something you wish you were doing yourself or if the sudden recollection of the abundance of choices in life has brought on a moment of insecurity about your own. If it is the latter, take some time to reaffirm your own decisions. If it is the former, go on to the next question.

Is this something that is viable for me right now?

Even if the source of your FOMO is indeed something you wish you were doing, sometimes it may not be the right time to be doing that particular thing. As you age, you go through different stages or seasons in your life. At each stage—from childhood to adolescence to adulthood—you undergo major life changes. It is essential to accept these stages and the transformations they bring about. At some points in your life, you may find that your current stage is compatible with what you really want to do, while at other times it may not be. So it is imperative that you enjoy the stage or season you are in as best as you can rather than worry about missing out on life.

Is this feeling telling me something that I need to change? While FOMO can be sparked by the variety of choices available and the uncertainty associated with them, sometimes it hints at something more fundamental: that you are not happy with your current life and that there is something out there you wish you could be doing instead. In this case, you should examine your FOMO before dismissing it out of hand. Keep in mind that your FOMO trigger may not relate directly to something you wish you were doing, but can point more broadly to something you wish to change about your life.

Is this an accurate representation of reality? ①Nobody is gullible enough to accept everything at face value. Almost everyone intrinsically knows that ②what is shown on social media and TV is not an accurate representation of people’s real lives. What people post on social media is what they want others to see and shows ③how they wish to see them. Only the most positive aspects of their lives are set in the limelight, while the negative, neutral, and mundane are deliberately edited out. What is more, in our age of photoshop, ④the images themselves are highly edited and sanitized. So ⑤why should you develop negative feelings about yourself based on inaccurate representations of reality?